The detective story is the normal recreation of noble minds.

classic quote by Philip Guedalla
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It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

quote by Agatha Christie
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But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.

quote by Peter Shaffer
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Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.

quote by Arthur C. Clarke
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I didn't know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting!

quote by Marie Windsor
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What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.

quote by P.D. James
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As a professional writer of detective stories, I string along with the ballplayers. I love a ball game.

quote by Rex Stout
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Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.

quote by Jeffery Deaver
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Mysteries

All last night I kept speaking in this
archaic language, because I had been reading
Poe and thinking about him. I read 'The Murders
in the Rue Morgue' which is supposedly the first
detective story. Who dun it? I wondered.
It turns out an orangutan was the murderer.
It looks to me like the detective story genre got off
to a pretty ridiculous start. I used to visit
Poe's house in the Bronx. I used to think,
God, Poe must have been a midget. Everything
is so small. Poe died in Baltimore and I can see why.
In Baltimore, all the people are very big and sincere.
During dinner last night, I told Doug and Susan
about 'Murders in the Rue Morgue.' I said I hadn't
finished it yet, but it looked like the murderer
was going to turn out to be an orangutan, unless
the plot took a surprising new twist. Then Doug
suggested that he and I collaborate
on a series of detective stories in which
the murderer is always an orangutan.

[...] Read more

poem by Terence Winch
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Writing detective stories is about writing light literature, for entertainment. It isn't primarily a question of writing propaganda or classical literature.

quote by Steig Larsson
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Eventually I would like to touch all the genres. I would like to do some detective stories, and I want to do a Western. I would want to do humorous Westerns.

quote by Sergio Aragones
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I know what kind of things I myself have been irritated by in detective stories. They are often about one or two persons, but they don't describe anything in the society outside.

quote by Steig Larsson
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There certainly does seem a possibility that the detective story will come to an end, simply because the public will have learnt all the tricks.

quote by Dorothy L. Sayers
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I did my very first film with Kirk in Detective Story when he was the greatest, greatest star in the world. I fell in love with him, had a crush on him then.

quote by Lee Grant
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I have never read horror, nor do I consider The Exorcist to be such, but rather as a suspenseful supernatural detective story, or paranormal police procedural.

quote by William Peter Blatty
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I really believe that studying organization, even in the form of studying detective story organization, is very, very valuable for a playwright, a budding playwright.

quote by Peter Shaffer
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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.

quote by Raymond Chandler
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There is no mystery, at least not the kind you want. In real life there are no fogbound moors or clues on matchbooks or fifth columnists waiting to be unmasked. it would be nice if here were, because then there would be solutions to things in life, but it doesn't always work that way. Everyone likes a good detective story. I went through my Hammett phase in college. I think the attraction is, in life our mysteries aren't exciting. You know They're just intractable and depressing and enervating. Like, why do we always hurt the ones we love. Where does the money go ...in a detective story, at least the universe makes sense. It was him. He did it. The natural order is disturbed, but the beauty of it is that it's restored again.

quote by Rogers Turrentine
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If I'm home with no chore at hand, and a package of books has come, the television set and the chess board and the unanswered mail will have to manage without me if one of the books is a detective story.

quote by Rex Stout
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... Dust

If only dust could talk
What would we hear it say?
Before it's brushed aside
Just as it's swept away
It's just the evidence
It's of no consequence
It's only flesh and bone
Why don't we leave it alone?
If only dust could gather into lines of chalk
Around a silhouette detective fiction walks
For it's the only witness that can testify
Can I spit out the truth?
Or would you rather just swallow a lie?
Why did they dam the land?
How did they flood the plain?
Did they erase the name?
And wipe away the stain
You kept your mouth well shut
Appeared to turn your coat
Now there's a name for you but it's stuck in my throat

[...] Read more

song performed by Elvis Costello
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