Top 100 Detective Quotes
#1. Phryne read a detective story, frequently going back because she suddenly found herself reading a conversation between two characters she had not met before -
Kerry Greenwood
#2. Fool. He's as bad as Watson, trying to throw himself in harm's way for the sake of the Great Detective.
Emma Jane Holloway
#3. The more I hung out with detective squads, the more there was always one guy or two guys or a woman who had a case that they were the primary on years ago, it was never solved, and they take that case into their retirements.
Richard Price
#4. Clemens laughed until he began coughing again. "Don't you see, James?" he said at last. "You and I are only minor characters in this story about the Great Detective. Our little lives and endings mean nothing to the God-Writer, whoever the sonofabitch might be.
Dan Simmons
#5. Ned said "Nancy Drew is the best girl detective in the whole world!"
"Don't you believe him," Nancy said quickly. "I have solved some mysteries, I'll admit, and I enjoy it, but I'm sure there are many other girls who could do the same.
Carolyn Keene
#6. There is even - as with no other game - a fascinating detective literature, a wry commentary on the human comedy, implicit in the book of rules.
Alistair Cooke
#7. Only once in a generation does anything as fresh as a vomiting detective come along.
Dean Koontz
#8. Let me express how much I don't care on a scale of one to bite me, the former detective said.
Darynda Jones
#9. The detective had been watching the video of Julie Mao's fight with her captors over and over again while they'd waited on Naomi and Amos to finish their work. It gave Holden the disquieting feeling that Miller was storing the footage in his head. Fuel for something he planned to do later.
James S.A. Corey
#10. 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
#11. I think if you need to use a gun you're doing a lousy job as a detective.
Joe Gores
#12. And whoever it is you love, Detective, use your time wisely. I'm at the end of this road, and you're at the beginning. Doesn't mean you have all the time in the world, though.
Kaje Harper
#13. Detective Segel, the evidence shows that you experienced a penile erection when the defendant opened fire. Would you describe that as an appropriate response?
Greg Egan
#14. The final two issues of the Englehart/Rogers/Austin collaboration, Detective Comics #475 and #476, are now esteemed alongside the greatest Batman stories ever created and would provide the seed for Tim Burton's 1989 feature film. In
Glen Weldon
#15. 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
#16. 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.
(Letter, April 19, 1951)
Raymond Chandler
#17. Still, the conscientious detective is obliged to examine the question of motive in a new light, to place it within the matrix of our present unusual circumstance.
Ben H. Winters
#18. That was still my meat - the true-detective yarn. I picked it up and started to read it over, wondering for the ten thousandth time why so many people are interested in crime and its solution.
Robert Bloch
#19. Faith doesn't move mountains, Detective. It just obscures the view.
Corey Redekop
#20. Nolly Wolfstan, private detective, had the teeth of a god and a face so unfortunate that it argued convincingly against the existence of a benign deity.
Dean Koontz
#21. 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
#22. I love the Swedish people for their detective novels, their archipelago, their sense of humor, their carbonated vodka, and most especially, for their wonderful hospitality.
Michael Levitt
#23. I think a lot of us responded intensely to 'True Detective' because it was so incredibly earnest. That's what made it heartbreaking and involving.
Annalee Newitz
#24. When I'm working on a serious and solid book ... I read about a detective novel a day. It's the best legal dope in the world. It makes you feel good until the next morning you can work again.
Mary Lee Settle
#25. Grace shivered even though it was hot out, because that's what detectives do in detective books.
Ella Minster
#26. 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.
Stieg Larsson
#27. He just waited until I stopped talking and said, 'Jesus, kid, you're almost a detective. All you need now is a gun, a gut, and three ex-wives. So what's your theory?
John Green
#28. Detective John Tallow, 1st Precinct."
"You," said Scarly. "I hate you so much my dick is hard.
Warren Ellis
#29. 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
#30. I also wonder why is it that so many of the movies and books that are detective stories are also the most aesthetically interesting? From Hollywood noirs to horror movies like The Shining [1980].
Christopher Bollen
#32. I think it's important to recognise that 'The Da Vinci Code' opened up a vast new audience for a general readership interested in historical detective stories and research into history.
Elizabeth Kostova
#33. 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
#34. I think every writer of detective fiction writing today has been influenced by Mr. Parker. I'm of a generation that followed Robert Parker, and it was impossible to read the genre and not be influenced by him.
Robert Crais
#35. Every mystery novel I ever read, the great detective was such an arrogant fuck you could replace 70% of his dialogue with 'Are you stupid?' and the conversation would still make sense.
NisiOisiN
#36. To be a good researcher is to be a good detective, and I enjoy ferreting out tidbits of information. For a diary book like 'A Coal Miner's Bride,' newspapers come in handy for small everyday details such as weather reports.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
#37. No private detective looks like a private detective. That's one of the first rules of private detection."
"But if no private detective looks like a private detective, how does a private detective know what it is he's supposed not to look like? Seems to me there's a problem there.
Douglas Adams
#38. 'True Detective' would not pass The Bechdel Test.
Cary Fukunaga
#39. You sleep okay, sweetie?"
"Miss my teddy," Billie replied.
Personally, I thought Detective Mitch Lawson was far superior to a tiny pink teddy bear but I wasn't six years old.
Kristen Ashley
#40. I used to work as a private detective years and years ago.
Errol Morris
#41. 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.
Peter Shaffer
#42. Rebus drank his coffee and felt his head spin. He was feeling like the detective in a cheap thriller, and wished that he could turn to the last page and stop all his confusion, all the death and the madness and the spinning in his ears.
Ian Rankin
#43. A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possibly be alive.
G.K. Chesterton
#44. I think people are tired of the CSI/SVU style of lurid and gory crime dramas. I believe there's a craving for lighter shows featuring detective characters who are fun to watch. I think people would welcome that kind of show.
Carol Higgins Clark
#45. 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.
Sergio Aragones
#46. 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
#47. I read Parker's Spenser series in college. When it comes to detective novels, 90 percent of us admit he's an influence, and the rest of us lie about it.
Harlan Coben
#48. You seem to have quite a taste for discussing these horrible subjects," she said, rather scornfully; "you ought to have been a detective police officer."
"I sometimes think I should have been a good one."
"Why?"
"Because I am patient.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
#49. 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.
Rex Stout
#50. 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
#51. You told Detective Stotts you think a wild storm is coming." "I thought you were puking." "Not with my ears," he said.
Devon Monk
#52. A locked-room problem lies at the heart of my new novel, 'In The Morning I'll Be Gone,' in which an RUC detective has to find out whether a publican's daughter who fell off a table in a bar that was locked from the inside was in fact murdered.
Adrian McKinty
#53. I'm a detective, but nuns could stonewall Sam Spade into an asylum
Dennis Lehane
#54. I've always said women are vicious creatures - Detective Zach Grimes
Lauren Bradshaw
#55. Listen, darling, tomorrow I'll buy you a whole lot of detective stories, but don't worry your pretty little head over mysteries tonight.
Dashiell Hammett
#56. Clearing her throat, Peabody turned the cube on record. I owe Dallas, Lieutenant Meaniepants Eve, twenty dollars to be paid out of my hard-earned, under-appreciated detective's salary next payday. Peabody, Detective Churchmouse Delia.
J.D. Robb
#57. If anybody asks me what I attribute the longevity of my career to, then I say it's because I was never satisfied with being a cowboy in the plains of Spain and later I was never satisfied with just playing a detective in San Francisco, and constantly just pushing the envelope.
Clint Eastwood
#58. Johannes Cabal would kill me for saying this, but he's my favorite Zeppelin-hopping detective. The fellow has got all the charm of Bond and the smarts of Holmes
without the pesky morality.
Daniel H. Wilson
#59. I wanted to be a police detective. In my work, particularly in documentaries, I am obsessed with finding things out, seeking ever-new facts and perspectives - each project can involve years of research.
James Marsh
#60. There are websites of 'True Detective' artwork out there now, and it's beautiful. And I don't want to take that away from anybody. I know what it means to me. But I don't want to take away anyone's interpretation of the show.
Nic Pizzolatto
#61. My experience of life is that it is not divided up 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
#62. These days we don't have to fit into something other people think we are. We've leveled the playing field, life is inclusive. I'm a mom, sex detective, wife, fearless, gentle - we can now, with grace, be all of what we are.
Mariska Hargitay
#63. When I feel that I'm going to write a detective story, I buy a five pound box of chocolates and a ream of paper. When the candy is all gone and the paper all used up, I know that the book is long enough.
Carolyn Wells
#64. I'm not cut out to be a detective on 'Law & Order' - I laugh too easily.
Becki Newton
#65. The detective story is not about murder," P. D. James has written, "but the restoration of order.
Anonymous
#66. His most characteristic detective stories end with the realization that no rational account of events is possible, and his suspense stories tend to close with terror not dissipated but omnipresent, like God.
("Introduction")
Francis M. Nevins Jr.
#67. Without warning, I stomped my heel down on Detective Hawke's toe. Hard. He squealed and did a one-footed jig. I debated on clapping along.
Ann Charles
#68. Ty: Your duffelbag is probably full of things you stole from the Institute.
Kit: It ... might be. What's that got to do with you, anyway? None of it's yours.
Ty: I want to solve crimes. To be a detective. But nobody here cares about that sort of thing.
Cassandra Clare
#69. I chose 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective,' or I'll say it chose me, and it was an absolute blessing, for the experience of being in Africa for seven months and learning so many different things, from languages to foods to greetings. On so many levels, it was an incredible experience.
Jill Scott
#70. I did not have an unlimited library to choose from on Robben Island. We had access to many unremembered mysteries and detective novels and all the works of Daphne du Maurier, but little more.
Nelson Mandela
#71. There is a sequence in my 'Detective Comics' run where you can't find consecutive issues by the same artist. That's intentional. That was done on purpose.
Greg Rucka
#72. It was the first time I worked with Matthew McConaughey [in the True Detective].They're fun guys [with Woody Harrelson]. They don't take life at all too seriously, but yet they take their work very seriously. And both of them are just so committed to character and the story.
Michelle Monaghan
#73. I enjoy setting the scene and coming up with interesting frames. 'True Detective' was a very hands-on set.
Cary Fukunaga
#74. The instant they say something you don't expect or already know, you should drop into detective mode.
Emmett Shear
#75. The problem facing a comprehender is analogous to the problem that a detective faces when trying to solve a crime. In both cases there is a set of clues.
David Rumelhart
#76. I played a homosexual bodyguard in 'The Last Detective,' and that was quite a pleasure to do something slightly different. I was a very camp bodyguard!
Dave Legeno
#77. Garrett must have sensed I was awake. "Hey Detective," he said to Uncle Bob, who was now trudging across the grating toward us. "I think we're losing her. I have no choice but to perform mouth-to-mouth."
"Don't you dare," I said, my lids still in lockdown.
Darynda Jones
#78. I felt really lucky that 'Hairstyles Of The Damned' and 'The Boy Detective Fails' were both bestsellers, and I thought that donating the money from 'Demons' was a good way to respond to that. My favorite artists are the ones that are willing to experiment, even if it means a smaller audience.
Joe Meno
#79. Uh, Kels, this is Detective Alan Hagan, my partner. He's useless when I'm supposed to have the night off.
Abigail Roux
#80. Read like a detective and write like a conscientious investigative reporter.
David Coleman
#81. I should have known better than to take a job as an assistant to a psychic detective.
Jayne Ann Krentz
#82. They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#83. In any case, I was less unhappy than the teammate who wondered whether the purported tribute of being a "well-rounded detective" was a jibe around his weight.
Edward Conlon
#84. A working detective has no hope of understanding what even experts who devote their lives to the study of criminal psychology can't figure out.
Mark Fuhrman
#85. What do you suppose we would do," I said conversationally, "if we ever had sex? I mean, what would we call each other? Captain and Walker? Morrison and Detective? Or would we just find excuses to not call each other anything?
C.E. Murphy
#86. I saw a street car conductor today with one brown eye and one blue. Wouldn't he make a nice villain for a detective story?
Jean Webster
#87. A blacksmith can go anywhere. A detective inspector only goes where the dead bodies are."
"But there aren't any dead people here today."
Mina glanced over her shoulder at the chest Newberry carried. "That's why I brought my own.
Meljean Brook
#88. I didn't do anything," Scott protested. "Breaking and entering is nothing?" Detective Basso echoed. "Funny, the law disagrees.
Becca Fitzpatrick
#89. I confess I prefer to engage with pictures which I've chosen myself out of the welter of unidentified pictures, without the intrusion of too much personal context - Ilike to be a detective, and dislike being an impresario.
Luc Sante
#90. It was very fortuitous that the show [True Detective] actually spans seventeen years - so as I was getting older on the show, I was gaining weight. When I'm playing fifty, I'm ten pounds heavier! I don't know if they thought maybe I was method? But it actually worked to my benefit.
Michelle Monaghan
#91. People who believe in buried gods,' said Louis.
'Do you believe in buried gods, Detective Walsh?'
'I'm Episcopalian. I believe in everything.
John Connolly
#92. Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories, and feel that there are not enough of them. So, after all that you have done for me, the least that I can do for you is to write you one.
A.A. Milne
#93. The surprise with which a detective novel concludes should set up tragic vibrations which run backward through the entire structure.
Ross Macdonald
#94. While I was in jail, they handcuffed me and took me to a backroom, where a detective from the FBI and a Secret Service agent were, and they interrogated me for about three or four hours.
Sherman Austin
#95. American violence is public life, it's a public way of life, it became a form, a detective story form. So I should think that any number of black writers should go into the detective story form.
Chester Himes
#96. My biggest dream and my biggest accomplishment was to be on HBO and 'True Detective.' It was a show that I just fell in love with.
Adria Arjona
#97. Operating in an unlit world, the unconscious mind is a brilliant detective.
Jo Coudert
#98. Detective Castilla, your Secret is safe with me." She blinked with surprise, and I groaned. "God, Holden. How long have you been waiting to use that line?"
"About three years."
"And in three years you couldn't find any room for improvment?
Sierra Dean
#99. The detective and his criminal wear versions of the same mask.
Jane Roberts
#100. A leg?" repeated Detective Inspector Eric Wardle on the end of the line. "A fucking leg?"
"And it's not even my size," said Strike, a joke he would not have made had Robin been present.
Robert Galbraith
