Detective Quotes

I don't greatly care for passes this early in the morning. — Raymond Chandler

Steven stared at the detective's gun and realized there was no escape. He had an emotional meltdown, letting his true feelings spill out of him. — Amelia Morgan

I will only write the novel, if I can solve the crime — Andrew Hixson

I hate unbreakable alibis--they are usually the first to crack.
--Hugo Anstead — Jennifer A. Girardin

I like two men, two guns that kind of thing, I don't do subtle. — C.S. Boag

Research. Government archives. Detective work. Few lucky guesses. Easy. — Douglas Adams

After all, the fundamental question of philosophy (like that of psychoanalysis) is the same as the question of the detective novel: who is guilty? — Umberto Eco

A three-pint problem — Melvyn Small

The instant Isabella Cortez left the safety of the FBI building, goose bumps skittered across her skin and her senses went on high alert. — Elizabeth Heiter

P.I. Cassie Cruise--You don't have to like her, but you damn well better respect her — S.L. Ellis

I'd love to do a Columbo-type detective character in a series. — Robert Carlyle

'True Detective' would not pass The Bechdel Test. — Cary Fukunaga

CONCERNED BUT NOT CONSUMED! — Ron Sanders

What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order. — P.D. James

You do know I'm not psychic, right?'
Dash looked down at her. 'Joy...you do know that normal people don't see ghosts, right? — Amy Andrews

My glass is not only half-empty, I'm convinced someone spit in it. — Judy Nichols

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

I would like it to be said that I was a good writer of detective and thriller stories. — Agatha Christie

I've always said women are vicious creatures - Detective Zach Grimes — Lauren Bradshaw

I see myself as an instrument of justice, not a dispenser of it."

-Detective Thanet. — Dorothy Simpson

When you live outside the law, you have to be flexible — Tom Cook

Eli Hofstadter, Private Detective and Investigative services. I find — Callie Hart

With 'True Detective,' you have a lot of time. How I like to describe it ... it's like you're filming a theater piece. — Adria Arjona

If we were all as wise as we should be, we would have no stories to tell — Freeman Wills Croft

All that Anne Rice crap is true, I thought on my way out the door; New Orleans really does have a vampire problem.
Besides me, of course. — J.R. Rain

This is the last time I ever get a private detective off the internet. — Sophie Kinsella

I like the idea of playing a historical detective. — Eva Mendes

PARKER spent two weeks on the white sand beach at Biloxi, and on a white sandy bitch named Belle, ...
Beat that for a PC opening line ... not — Richard Stark

If you don't like the path your life has taken, choose another. — Robert G. DeMers

I am a writer. I could not afford to take 15 months off from my writing career to play detective. — James Ellroy

A check girl in peach-bloom Chinese pajamas came over to take my hat and disapprove of my clothes. She had eyes like strange sins. — Raymond Chandler

Setting that little girl loose in her society would be like putting a fox in with the chickens. (Violet Strange's detective boss.) — Candida Martinelli

I should mortify a dozen Sir Johns if it might aid my investigation." - Elizabeth Bennet — Debbie Cowens

I began to get really keen, for every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective. — John Buchan

Now the tea began to do its work- as it always did- and the world that only a few minutes previously had seemed so bleak started to seem less so. — Alexander McCall Smith

Blackstone's Police Operational Handbook recommends the ABC of serious investigation: Assume nothing, Believe nothing, and Check everything. — Ben Aaronovitch

Our job involves looking at things that people usually can't see. — Fuminori Nakamura

I play a detective, very close to myself actually. — Jon Voight

I made 'True Detective' like it was going to be the only thing I ever made for television. So put in everything and the kitchen sink. Everything. — Nic Pizzolatto

Tailing someone is like maintaining a relationship: you keep at it until they give you the slip, or until they confirm everything you suspect them of. — Mark Crutchfield

Rene Caron takes my breath away! — Teresa Lynn

Ah! Madame, I reserve the explanations for the last chapter. — Agatha Christie

Well, strap my ass to a flagpole and hoist it skyward' an all to familiar voice declared. — Keri Arthur

I am a private detective. I am paid to be inquisitive and presumptuous. — Douglas Adams

From what I've read of detective stories, inspectors always do want to drag the pond first. — A.A. Milne

A show like 'True Detective' is definitely a drama. — John Wells

The cultured cop! I thought they were peculiar to detective novels. — P.D. James

In detective stories virtue is always triumphant. They're the purest literature we have — Dorothy L. Sayers

It was clear that in a past life the detective had been a phone booth beside an empty highway. — Amelia Gray

You have bigger balls than some men I know. — Carolyn Arnold

Pigpen warned us that the detective fucked you up." Eli says. — Katie McGarry

The only two kinds of books could earn an American writer a living are cookbooks and detective novels. — Rex Stout

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a spy detective or a rock star. — Jill Sobule

You have a tendency, Hastings, to prefer the least likely. That, no doubt, is from reading too many detective stories. — Agatha Christie

There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel,
and the deader the corpse the better. — S. S. Van Dine

It is dangerous to engage in even the most innocuous-seeming discourse with the FBI/ Homeland Security/ a local detective. — Ingrid Newkirk

[ ... ] a super-rat. I nailed it across the eyes once with a lucky shot with the butt of my gun, but it got up again and shat in my telephone. — Warren Ellis

Chatty, defensive, observant. My new favorite witness. — Rob Thomas

About Tommy, you went through your whole life craving these little pockets of time and missing them for more time than you had them. — Lily Gardner

I should have known better than to take a job as an assistant to a psychic detective. — Jayne Ann Krentz

A detective sees death in all the various forms at least five times a week. — Evan Hunter

If only marriage licenses came with a buyer's remorse clause.
~Detective Mike Malone — D.B. Woodling

Mr. Snow.'
'Detective Winter.'
'Do you give all of the men in your life a murder case for Christmas, or just the really special ones? — C.S. Poe

In ordinary detective novels you never see the consequences of what happens in a story in the next book. That you do in mine. — Stieg Larsson

He was a detective, but he didn't detect anything. It fell into his lap, already broken,
every time. — Jodi Picoult

A conventional crime story is simple - it's just a corpse in the river or something, and a detective with an alcohol problem. — David Lagercrantz

The only way Magick ever has power is when its secrets are truly secret. Once too many people know how it works, then it doesn't work anymore. — Abramelin Keldor

A bit unsporting, what?" he said. "Ought to ferret out the mystery before we go. Whole thing's like a detective story. Positively thrilling. — Anonymous

The detective story is not about murder," P. D. James has written, "but the restoration of order. — Anonymous

The best crime novels are not about how a detective works on a case; they are about how a case works on a detective. — Michael Connelly

What about Ding-Dong?"

"Detective Inspector Bell couldn't find his arse with both hands if you duct-taped them to it. Come on. — Stuart MacBride

Moriston House is really quite beautiful. No wonder everyone wants to be murdered here.
--Roberta "Bobbie" Aldridge — Jennifer A. Girardin

A woman could do a lot of crazy things for a pair of fine-looking dimples. — Amy Andrews

And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it." - Detective Sam Spade — Dashiell Hammett

[T]he historian and the detective have much in common. — Ralph Davis

He said her name like a detective unmasking the face of the culprit he'd suspected all along. — Allyse Near

Nothing in the television show 'True Detective' was plagiarized. — Nic Pizzolatto

As it is, we could not call mine a beautiful puss, but it does the job well enough, distinguishing the front of my head from the back. — Sue Grafton

You don't rewrite it, censor it, or edit it, to suit some warped view you have of the past and your own present. — V.T. Davy

I was so nervous that this was 'True Detective' and that I needed to do a good job that I would just dig into every scene. — Adria Arjona

Like a detective keenly searching for clues, our daughters are solving the mystery of womanhood itself. — Melia Keeton-Digby

The detective had a kidnapping, he had a knife and he had blood. He had an insane old man. He was going in. — Darin Gibby

In near panic, I craned my neck to gaze over the cabin's roofline a bursting fireball. — Ed Lynskey

I'm not cut out to be a detective on 'Law & Order' - I laugh too easily. — Becki Newton

Sometimes a girl's gotta be bad to be good.

Murder in the Dog Park — Jill Yesko

I love the French detective series 'Spiral.' It's quite brutal to watch, but I'm already hooked. — Robert Winston

I didn't do anything," Scott protested. "Breaking and entering is nothing?" Detective Basso echoed. "Funny, the law disagrees. — Becca Fitzpatrick

the emperor had chewed off his balls and stuffed a one-way ticket to the Black Sea up his rectum [Marcus Corvinus explains what happened to Ovid] — David Wishart

The instant they say something you don't expect or already know, you should drop into detective mode. — Emmett Shear

Mental note when dealing with Mitch: he was a police detective and he had ways of getting information therefore never let your guard down — Kristen Ashley

Covert operations relied on the unguarded slip, the unconscious choosing of one word over another. — Sara Sheridan

When I was growing up, my stepmother's sister was the chief detective in one of the adjoining towns, so she piqued my interest in crime. — Karin Slaughter

Men read either the novels it is possible to respect, or detective stories. But their consumption of detective stories is terrific. — George Orwell

We could certainly use a detective. And I've got to hand it to you, Nancy - you sure can keep your head. — Carolyn Keene

Forward in time, the man named Konan didn't match my idea of a detective. — Natsuki Mamiya

I left a note for my mother. I always leave a note for my mother when I am on a case. — Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

Chuckling to herself, Nancy said aloud, Romance and detective work won't mix tonight! — Carolyn Keene

Serpine: You have caused me so much trouble over the years detective. It's almost a shame to end it
Skulduggery: You're surrendering? — Derek Landy

The detective and his criminal wear versions of the same mask. — Jane Roberts

The detective seemed to remember reading that advertisers used Scottish accents to suggest integrity and honesty. The — Robert Galbraith