S. S. Van Dine Quotes

#1. We all do things in a certain individual way, according to our temperaments.
Every human act - no matter how large or how small - is a direct expression of
a man's personality, and bears the inevitable impress of his nature.

S. S. Van Dine

#2. Of all the criminal cases in which Philo Vance participated as unofficial investigator, the most sinister, the most bizarre, the seemingly most incomprehensible, and certainly the most terrifying was the one that followed the famous Greene murders.

S. S. Van Dine

#3. But society is ignorant and venomous, devoid of any trace of insight or understanding. It exalts knavery, and worships stupidity. It crucifies the intelligent, and puts the diseased in dungeons.

S. S. Van Dine

#4. We're all servants. Some to our fellow men. Some to our vices.

S. S. Van Dine

#5. Only, as long as we're going insane we may as well go the whole way. A mere shred of sanity is of no value.

S. S. Van Dine

#6. There are few punishments too severe for a popular novel writer,

S. S. Van Dine

#7. There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel,
and the deader the corpse the better.

S. S. Van Dine

#8. Giving full rein to one's cynicism as one goes along produces a normal outlet and maintains an emotional equilibrium.

S. S. Van Dine