“The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.”

“The criminal is a creative artist; detectives are just critics.”

“He thought his detective brain as good as the criminal's, which was true. But he fully realised the disadvantage. "The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic," he said with a sour smile, and lifted his coffee cup to his lips slowly, and put it down very quickly. He had put salt in it.”

“It's impossible for a creative artist to be either a Puritan or a Fascist, because both are a negation of the creative urge. The only things a creative artist can be opposed to are ugliness and injustice.”

“Literary critics make natural detectives.”

“The only important elements in any society are the artistic and the criminal, because they alone, by questioning the society’s values, can force it to change.”