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 Copy Share Image
Giving full rein to one's cynicism as one goes along produces a normal outlet and maintains an emotional equilibrium. — S. S. Van Dine Copy Share Image
There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the deader the corpse the better. — S. S. Van Dine Copy Share Image
A detective novel should contain no long descriptive passages, no literary dallying with side-issues, no subtly worked-out character analyses, no 'atmospheric' preoccupations. Such matters… — S. S. Van Dine Copy Share Image
It has long been a source of wonder to me why the leading criminological writers--men like Edmund Lester Pearson, H. B. Irving, Filson Young,… — S. S. Van Dine Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Of all the criminal cases in which Philo Vance participated as unofficial investigator, the most sinister, the most bizarre, the seemingly most incomprehensible, and… — S. S. Van Dine Copy Share Image
