Detectives Quotes · Page 2

“The name's Clem Williamson Snide. I am a private asshole.”

— William Burroughs

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

— Raymond Chandler

I found out a few months after we started [True Detective] that I was pregnant.

— Michelle Monaghan

I think if you need to use a gun you're doing a lousy job as a detective.

— Joe Gores

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

— Douglas Adams

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

— Agatha Christie

Detective stories are the art-for-art's sake of yawning Philistinism.

— V. S. Pritchett

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

— James Ellroy

In the summer of 2010, I was working on a version of 'True Detective' that I was thinking might be my next…

— Nic Pizzolatto

I never have liked detective dramas. I try to watch all of them to see what's going on, but I don't like…

— Kevin Whately

I made 'True Detective' like it was going to be the only thing I ever made for television. So put in everything…

— Nic Pizzolatto

The best crime novels are not about how a detective works on a case; they are about how a case works on…

— Michael Connelly

“Her hair was pulled back so severely, it would have won approval from the Spanish Inquisition as a method of torture.”

— Will Thomas

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

— Emmett Shear

A detective who uses his deductive powers to corner a suspect and then does nothing to stop them from committing suicide is…

— Gosho Aoyama

Personally, I like those mystery shows. Ever since I was a kid I've been crazy about blood and detectives and murder. Maybe…

— Jack Paar

If anybody asks me what I attribute the longevity of my career to, then I say it's because I was never satisfied…

— Clint Eastwood

All the plays that have ever been written, from ancient Greece to the present day, have never really been anything but thrillers...…

— Eugene Ionesco

The private detective of fiction is a fantastic creation who acts and speaks like a real man. He can be completely realistic…

— Raymond Chandler

Then there are some minor points that strike me as suggestive - for instance, the position of Mrs. Hubbard's sponge bag, the…

— Agatha Christie

Scientists are people of very dissimilar temperaments doing different things in very different ways. Among scientists are collectors, classifiers and compulsive tidiers-up;…

— Peter Medawar

A detective with his murder mystery, a chemist seeking the structure of a new compound, use little of the formal and logical…

— Gilbert N. Lewis

The careful scholarship of the dedicated amateur mycophile R. Gordon Wasson reads like an exciting scientific detective story. Moreover, his willingness to…

— Weston La Barre

“I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I have ever come across: a study…

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Mma Ramotswe had a detective agency in Africa, at the foot of Kgale Hill. These were its assets: a tiny white van,…

— Alexander McCall Smith

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain…

— Raymond Chandler

A hand from Washington will be stretched out and placed upon every man’s business; the eye of the federal inspector will be…

— Richard E. Byrd

“The two men sat silent for a little, and then Lord Peter said: "D'you like your job?" The detective considered the question,…

— Dorothy L. Sayers

Any chance of getting something sweet to go with my coffee?” [Finn] asked in a hopeful voice. I arched an eyebrow at…

— Jennifer Estep

Daytime television, you can tell who’s watching by the three kinds of commercials. Either it’s clinics for drying out drunks. Or it’s…

— Chuck Palahniuk

“ Let's be detectives when we grow up," suggested Douglas. " No," said William. " It's more fun bein' the man that…

— Richmal Crompton

The average detective story is probably no worse than the average novel, but you never see the average novel. It doesn't get…

— Raymond Chandler

Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at.

— Matthew McConaughey

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

— Jane Roberts

If I write scripts that nobody likes, I don't think we'll be doing 'True Detective.'

— Nic Pizzolatto

I was really bummed when I got to the last one of Tony Hillerman Navajo detective books.

— Dave Barry

Detective stories have nothing to do with works of art.

— W. H. Auden

I saw part of The Singing Detective on TV in New York. I said, Something is going on here.

— Alain Resnais

Not all detectives are the same - some play bad cop, some are awkward, some are funny.

— Juliette Lewis

“An unmarked cop car carrying Mitch Lawson and Brock Lucas, both detectives with the DPD.”

— Kristen Ashley