You always know when somebody's dead.

“We saved the lives of a whole family that night. Children, parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, all sailed to safety in Sweden inside a little…

— Steen Langstrup

The danger that may really threaten (crime fiction) is that soon there will be more writers than readers

— Jacques Barzun

“Payne sought clarification. “Vertical or horizontal?” “Horizontal, of course.” “Sorry but I can’t help you.” “Will you pipe down for a minute? Naturally she…

— Ed Lynskey

There is sometimes a feeling in crime fiction that good writing gets in the way of story. I have never felt that way. All…

— John Connolly

“At that exact moment, 6-0-0, the sun climbed over the skyline of oaks, revealing its full summer angry-god self. Its reflection flared across the…

— Gillian Flynn

Scandinavian crime fiction has become a great success all across the world and rightfully so. Sjowall and Wahloo ushered in a whole generation of…

— Camilla Lackberg

“You spill a lot of beans in historical fiction. Crime fiction is about spilling no beans at all. You spill the least beans you…

— Sara Sheridan

The built-in form is a window frame. You can use this genre [crime fiction] to go where you want to go, and explore what…

— Michael Connelly

“Humanity thrown together in the equivalent of a Petri dish under a microscope bred malignant organisms as often as benign.”

— B.V. Lawson

“Life isn’t fair. Fair is somewhere you go to ride the dodgems and win a goldfish.”

— Mark Billingham

“One of the two owners, the man who had been sitting in the front room, was stretched out in there asleep, stockinged-toes pointed at…

— Cornell Woolrich

“The Professor is coming...”

— Anonymous

“The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’ . .…

— Truman Capote

I've been writing since 1973. I've written nonfiction things of that nature, but I'm probably best known for crime fiction and, to some extent,…

— Joe R. Lansdale

My focus will always be crime, but it might not always be fiction, nor always for adults, nor books entirely in prose. That's a…

— Sarah Weinman