Detective Fiction Authors

"“Good thinking,” the tall man agreed. “In this case it’s not true, but it is good thinking.”"

"It was obvious that insufficient education was a serious handicap."

"“How are you on the high wire?” “Wire walking? It’s simple. Any child of ten can do it—with about fourteen years practice."

"I don’t like eating in the dark. Dimly lit restaurants always make me think they’re trying to hide the food."

"There’s more leg room in first class, to be sure, but there’s more poetry in second class—and more honesty in third."

"“You’re from Liverpool, of course,” He was very proud of his ability to place different accents. “No,” Sylvia told him. “Boston.”"

"“A lot of things seem to be happening, all at once,” I told Chester. “Enemy action,” he replied. “Huh?” “That’s what you told me once. An old Army motto you found when you were doing those war books. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. This is the third time.”"

"“Well, what that means is that it doesn’t happen very often. Now it’s happened to one small group of people—us—twice in a short time. That would seem to indicate that,” he ticked a finger, “something’s seriously out of whack in general, or,” he ticked the next finger, “someone’s out to get us in particular; which I feel is quite unlikely. At times in my paranoid past I would have assumed that the Universe is teaming up to get me, but now I’m more objective and I don’t believe that. I think it, but I don’t believe it.”"

"I am not in the habit of letting someone else decide what I can and cannot do."

"“A curious mixture, you,” I said, pulling her firmly toward me over the bowl of cement and commencing a lengthy kiss of agreement, exploration, adoration and lust."

"It’s what a man thinks is true which controls his actions, not what is really true."

"“I mistrust these artificial things,” O’Malley said. “Food doesn’t grow surrounded by tinfoil.”"

"“I’ve been taught certain things all my life,” she said. “Just as you have. I’m just as much a prisoner of my training and my environment as you are of yours.” “I never thought that I was,” Carl said. Alyssaunde took his hand. “Neither did I,” she said."

"They were a well-behaved group, too; getting in trouble often enough so there could be no doubt about their masculinity, but not enough so that the discipline officer would remember any of their names."

"He could have assigned this part of the job to another, but it was not in his conception of his duties to do so. The shorter the chain, the less chance for a broken link."

"An amphibophile is the sort of girl who goes around kissing princes in the hope that one of them will turn into a frog."

"“God is just,” he said. “Just what?” I asked. “Just watching.”"

"The trains take us anywhere we want on earth. They’re very fast and dependable. If I remember from history we tried personal mechanical vehicles for a short time, but gave them up as a bad idea. They smell up the road, take up too much room, caused many accidents and just proved a general nuisance."

"Fear, that unknowable and all-powerful enemy, has invaded us all, like a secret army of shadows."

"For as I grow older, life seems to me simply an endless succession of problems to be solved, rather than hours to be enjoyed."

"The tale survives of two men Who fell in love "at first sight"; Who shared everything In unbounded intimacy Including the pillow And the red embroidered coverlet Which had been in the family For generations. Whether they had bad days, Domestic arguments Or inappropriate dreams We do not know – No doubt such burrs Were worked away by time Polishing its story; How they found each other And lived together all their lives, And died on the same day, And were buried by the grieving town On Mount Luofo's peak With their pillow and red coverlet; And a pine tree grew Out of the grave Like the character for longevity And true love.Such is the legend. I like to think of them, Pan Zhang and Wang Zhangxian, In the crowd of well-wishers Waiting in the April sunshine, Yes, under white cherry trees In full bloom, for us Here and now, on this day Early in the century, In our very best suits and ties, With our new rings Growing warm on our fingers Like keepsakes of light Saved from the stars."

"For a world with so much sun we live in a dark place, in a dark time."

"‘I don’t think he’d ever have made a strong king. He was weak as water. Can you imagine him smiting the enemy? Destroying them in battle? Having the guts to execute the opposition?’ ‘Perhaps it’s time we had a king who didn’t do that. Perhaps it’s time we had a king who had other values on his mind,’ I said, playing nervously with my dagger to calm the growing anxiety inside me. ‘Like what?’ ‘Reform of corruption. Civil order to prevent the abuses of power. Justice.’"

"Hunger is no respecter of disaster."

"My dear friend, the world is really one vast marketplace. No one cares where a man is from as long as he has gold in his pocket, or something you want. And the remarkable thing is this: the wars have only encouraged demand, trade has actually boomed in these difficult years. The ships are full, everyone is happy. War and politics are irrelevant, unless the great flow of trade is disturbed."

"'Come on, Rahotep. How do you think Royal Envoy Nakht gets his information about events in the north, and in the war? The army has its intelligence, and the palace has its own, too. The days when an invasion or an attack took place and no one heard about it for months are long gone. This war’s all about speed and information, and you can be sure Nakht has a very efficient system. The problem is, each system is always trying to infiltrate the other. And there’s always the danger of spies.’"

"Can love communicate over great distance? I could only hope so."

"Death makes us strangers to ourselves ... Do not indulge yourself in a self-pitying, self-gratifying revenge. More than likely you would simply end up dead as well."

"‘I suspect you are intent upon some sort of revenge, in response to this dreadful tragedy?’ ‘And?’ I said. ‘Let me counsel you. In moments such as this, we are inclined to allow the animal aspect of our natures to take control. It is a mistake. ... Because revenge can destroy a man as surely as the plague. It seems like a god, so pure and true, and full of its sense of justice and entitlement. But it is truly a monster. It feeds perpetually upon its own pain, and upon any pain it can find. And it can never be satisfied until everything has been destroyed utterly.’"

"I would much rather have a living husband with no job and no gold than a dead one."

"Conflict defines nations. Enemies justify armies. Wars glorify generals. Without his great enemy to give him purpose and meaning, he will be significantly diminished. He will have to come to terms with us."

"A little distance had opened between us, almost unnoticed, rarely acknowledged. We made love infrequently. The couch was for sleep at the end of exhausting days. I confided in her less often. Perhaps that is the fate of all marriages."

"‘These ambassadors are all the same. They have the eyes of Anubis. And they make me feel like a servant. Like a shabti in a tomb. “Here I am. I will do it!”’"

"There is truth in what you say. Truth is a dangerous muse. One dies for the truth."

"Do intellect and morality count for nothing in the way the future unfolds? [...] Greed is our king, and corruption is his servant."

"I dislike talk of the Gods, who taunt us with their promises, and whose disappointments we must always accept."

"‘I see I have shocked you all a little. But to be a poet is to accept the responsibility of speaking the truth! No matter what the cost to my personal safety [...] in matters of men and this world. I’m a poet, not a complete fool…’"

"‘There is no such thing as a cheerful poem [...] Happiness writes in water, not ink.’"

"The truth is always the truth."

"Maybe I’ve finally learned the bitter truth that I can’t beat them, even if I’ll never join them. But I’m not going to lose the one thing I can still call my own: my life. And you should wise up and do the same, especially with a new child on the way."

"In these dark times people prefer to look away from everything they would rather not see."

"‘Perhaps our childhoods are buried inside all of us. Perhaps they set the pattern for our futures,’ I suggested. ‘In that case I am doomed by mine,’ she said without self-pity. ‘Perhaps not, for you are aware of it,’ I said."

"Cruelty, rage, grief — and something others carelessly name evil — can reduce the strange collation of profanity and beauty which makes up each of us to an inanimate lump of decaying meat."

"Once wine was the means to artificial happiness; now things are much more sophisticated, and what was one of the great secrets of medicine has become the only bliss many find in this life."

"Order is the priority of power."

"But words are imperfect, and our system of writing, for all its great glories, has its limitations in terms of its ability to describe creation in all its manifest and hidden glories ... So we would have to invent another way of describing things."

"It would be another day ruled by this world’s new gods: gold and power."

"My old friend. I know you see the reality of the streets, and the miseries of the people, and that is a valuable perspective. But remember the world of the wealthy, the priests and the nobles also suffers from dangerous tribulations. The two are not mutually exclusive."

"Even words are not perhaps safe in these times."

"‘I am against change. It is overrated. It improves nothing,’ said Hor. ‘Come now, that is an absurd opinion, and goes against all sense. It is merely a sign of age, for as we get older, so we believe the world gets worse, manners decline, standards of ethics and knowledge are eroded—’ said Nakht."