Detective Quotes 

Just released in 1994 is Christina Hoff Sommers’s landmark study, Who Stole Feminism? , which uses ingenious detective work to unmask the shocking fraud and propaganda of establishment feminism and the servility of American media and academe to Machiavellian feminist manipulation. This bracingly precise, fact-based book should be required reading for every journalist. Sommers is a courageous academic philosopher who was one of the very first to systematically critique current feminist ideology and who took tremendous abuse for it. … Sommers has done a great service for women and for feminism, whose fundamental precepts she has clarified and strengthened.
Camille Paglia
Share

More Detective Quotes 

The private detective of fiction is a fantastic creation who acts and speaks like a real man. He can be completely realistic in every sense but one, that one sense being that in life as we know it such a man would not be a private detective.

Raymond Chandler

— letter, 19 April 1951, published in Raymond Chandler Speaking (1962)

Tags: private, fiction, fantastic, creation, who, acts, speaks, real, man

Share
twitter

I thought that writing a detective story would be a wonderful apprenticeship because, whatever people tell you, a crime novel is not easy to write well. As I continued with my craft I became increasingly fascinated by the form and realized that you can use the formula to say something true about men and women and the society in which they live.


— 1991  'Series Detectives', collected in Brown and Munro (eds) Writers Writing (1993).

Tags: thought, writing, story, wonderful, apprenticeship, people, tell, you, crime

Share
twitter

One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind . Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. Two-thirds of 2001 is realistic hardware and technology to establish background for the metaphysical , philosophical , and religious meanings later.

arthur c. clarke

— As quoted in The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (1970) by Jerome Agel, p. 300

Tags: One, biggest, roles, science, fiction, prepare, people, accept, future

Share
twitter

All the plays that have ever been written, from ancient Greece to the present day, have never really been anything but thrillers... Drama's always been realistic and there's always been a detective about... Every play's an investigation brought to a successful conclusion.

eugène ionesco

— Victimes du Devoir [Victims of Duty] (1953)

Tags: plays, been, written, ancient, Greece, present, day, never, anything

Share
twitter

The detective novel is?the classic example of a specialized form of art removed from contact with the life it pretends to build on.


— 1951  In the New Statesman,16 Jun.

Tags: novel, isthe, classic, example, specialized, form, art, removed, contact

Share
twitter

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

agatha christie

— Life magazine (1956-05-14)
— This is in fact something an admirer said, which Christie quoted with disapproval (p. 98)

Tags: ridiculous, set, story, New, York, City

Share
twitter

Life isn’t divided into genres. It’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky.

alan moore

— "The Mustard magazine interview" (January 2005)

Tags: Life, divided, genres, horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, sciencefiction, cowboy

Share
twitter

He's had a tough life. As is not unusual in Jewish families - if you've ever seen the movie Avalon - I think somebody's cut the turkey on Uncle Louis a few years ago... That doesn't change my view of him when I was young and he was a detective.

howard safir

— Safir, reponding to the disparaging comments made about him by his uncle, Louis Weiner (who captured the bandit Willie Sutton)Russ Baker and Josh Benson (1999-05-16). "The Commish Bites Back: Howard Safir Explains His Life to His Critics". The New York Observer. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 

Tags: tough, life, unusual, Jewish, families, seen, movie, Avalon, think

Share
twitter

What else does a detective agency really need? detective agencies rely on human intuition and intelligence, both of which Mma Ramotswe had in abundance. No inventory would ever include those, of course.

alexander mccall smith

— The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, chapter 1

Tags: What, agency, need, agencies, rely, human, intuition, intelligence, both

Share
twitter

Bosh. I find a rival — but no, I won't flatter myself that Tecumseh Fox would consider himself a rival of Dol Bonner — I find an eminent detective in your apartment, and that alone is enough, without adding that he is concealed in your bedroom while I am discussing my business with you...

rex stout

— Dol Bonner, to her employee Amy Duncan, chapter 2

Tags: Bosh, find, rival, flatter, myself, Fox, consider, himself, Bonner

Share
twitter

Of course the modern detective story puts off its best tricks till the last, but Doyle always put his best tricks first and that's why they're still the best ones.

rex stout

— Rex Stout, page 251

Tags: course, modern, story, best, tricks, last, Doyle, first

Share
twitter

There are only two kinds of books which you can write and be pretty sure you're going to make a living — cook books and detective stories.

rex stout

— Rex Stout, page 3

Tags: There, two, kinds, books, you, can, write, pretty, going

Share
twitter

They began by controlling books of cartoons and then detective books and, of course, films, one way or another, one group or another, political bias , religious prejudice , union pressures; there was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark , afraid of the future , afraid of the past , afraid of the present , afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves.

ray bradbury

— Usher II (1950)

Tags: controlling, books, cartoons, then, course, films, one, another, group

Share
twitter

Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.

john buchan

— Ch. 2 "I First Hear Of Mr Andrew Lumley"

Tags: man, bottom, heart, believes, born

Share
twitter

The perfect detective story cannot be written. The type of mind which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can produce the artistic job of writing.

Raymond Chandler

— "Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story", published in The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler(1976)

Tags: perfect, story, written, type, mind, can, evolve, problem, produce

Share
twitter

You can always tell a detective on TV. He never takes his hat off.

Raymond Chandler

— chapter 14 (Playback (1958))

Tags: You, can, tell, TV, never, hat

Share
twitter

I'm a detective, but nuns could stonewall Sam Spade into an asylum.

dennis lehane

— Ch. 2 (A Drink Before the War (1994))

Tags: nuns, Sam, Spade, asylum

Share
twitter

If psychics were truly successful and if their results were not simply the consequence of trickery (at worse) or good interviewing skills (at best) then why don't law enforcement agencies have psychic detective squads, a real X-files Unit, or other ways to integrate these paranormal investigative capabilites?


— Clint Van Zandt, former FBI profiler; quoted in "Shoe leather, not sixth sense, breaks cases open", MSNBC.com, 30 March 2005

Tags: psychics, successful, results, simply, consequence, trickery, worse, good, interviewing

Share
twitter

The No.1Ladies' detective Agency.

alexander mccall smith

— 1998  Novel title.

Tags: Agency

Share
twitter

There was some brilliant use of polymer applied, and the result is a physically large pistol which, with magazine removed, weighs only 20.5 ounces on my scale. That’s less than the weight of a snub-nose Colt detective Special, but depending on the magazine, the Five-seveN carries ten, twenty, or even thirty rounds of 5.7mm, compared to six rounds of .38 Special in the snubbie.


— Massad Ayoob

Tags: There, brilliant, use, applied, result, physically, large, pistol, magazine

Share
twitter
  • Dictionary
  • Thesaurus
  • Examples
    • See in a sentence
    • Example articles
  • Quotes
    • Famous Quotes
    • Quote Articles
  • Spanish
    • Spanish-English Translation
    • Reference
  • Reference
    • Education
    • ESL
    • Grammar
    • Abbreviations
    • Biography
    • Books & Literature
    • Examples
    • Foreign Languages
    • Resources
    • Slideshows
  • Word Finder
    • 4 Pics 1 Word Answers
    • Anagram Solver
    • Scrabble Dictionary
    • Unscramble
    • Word Cookies Cheat
    • Scrabble Checker
    • Words With Friends Cheat
    • More Games
Share
  • Dictionary
  • Thesaurus
  • Examples
    • See in a sentence
    • Example articles
  • Quotes
    • Famous Quotes
    • Quote Articles
  • Spanish
    • Spanish-English Translation
    • Reference
  • Reference
    • Education
    • ESL
    • Grammar
    • Abbreviations
    • Biography
    • Books & Literature
    • Examples
    • Foreign Languages
    • Resources
    • Slideshows
  • Word Finder
    • 4 Pics 1 Word Answers
    • Anagram Solver
    • Scrabble Dictionary
    • Unscramble
    • Word Cookies Cheat
    • Scrabble Checker
    • Words With Friends Cheat
    • More Games
Share
  • Home
  • Quotes
  • detective quotes
Send your feedback to YourDictionary
Get our free Amazon Alexa Skills!

Join YourDictionary today

By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Please set a username for yourself.
People will see it as Author Name with your public flash cards.