“You have a tendency, Hastings, to prefer the least likely. That, no doubt, is from reading too many detective stories.”

“From what I've read of detective stories, inspectors always do want to drag the pond first.”

“Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.”

“Literature might be called the art of story, and story might in turn be called a universal language, for every culture we know of has a tradition of storytelling. No doubt stories have touched your life, too, from bedtime stories you may have heard as a child to news stories you see on TV or read in a newspaper. We might even say that a major goal of living is to created the story of our own lives, a story we hope to take pleasure and pride in telling.”

“I went to get a detective story. You have to kill time. But time will kill me too - and there´s the true, preestablished balance.”

“If I closed my eyes as you were talking, it was like I was there, like your stories were my stories. In many ways, I feel as if I have memories of you there, too. ”