Otto Penzler Quotes

I love the whole mystery-detective genre - I love all of that.

Mystery fiction was considered a stepchild of literature.

Although we might think of Holmes as the Ur-sleuth, the seminal inspiration for many writers comes not from the chronicles of Baker Street but from the intricately plotted novels of Charles Dickens and his colleague Wilkie Collins, who in works like 'Bleak House' and 'The Moonstone' established the modern, character-driven mystery novel.

Most crime fiction plots are not ambitious enough for me. I want something really labyrinthine with clues and puzzles that will reward careful attention.

The queen of crime, Agatha Christie, was always more concerned about the clockwork cleverness of the plot, never the investigator.

I'm really into the detective drama genre.

There are two ways to approach the writing of a mystery novel: adhere to the rules, or break them with glee.

Dashiell Hammett took murder out of theVenetian vase and dropped it into the alley.

The detective story is the normal recreation of noble minds.

I had a publishing history of murder mysteries.

There certainly does seem a possibility that the detective story will come to an end, simply because the public will have learnt all the tricks.

I have never been able to read Agatha Christie - the pleasure is purely in the puzzle, and the reader is toyed with by someone who didn't decide herself who the killer was until the end of the writing.

Murder mysteries are puzzles that are fun to resolve.

If you ask people if they enjoy crime novels, they'll say, 'Oh, my guilty pleasure is...' then name a really brilliant crime writer.

I don't think the Barbara Vines are mysteries in any sense. The Barbara Vine is much more slowly paced. It is a much more in-depth, searching sort of book; it doesn't necessarily have a murder in it.

But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.

I've always been a secret locked-room fanatic. I read my first one when I was about ten or 11, Agatha Christie's 'Murder on the Orient Express,' with David Niven and Peter Ustinov on the cover.

I've always had a great fondness for English detective fiction such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.

Writing detective stories is about writing light literature, for entertainment. It isn't primarily a question of writing propaganda or classical literature.

I would love to write a mystery - a romantic, funny mystery.

Crime fiction is a way of satisfying that nosy need to know.

I read a lot of detective novels.

When I was young, I knew William Burroughs really well. And William's secret desire, which he never quite did, was to write a straightforward detective novel.

Crime fiction is the new rock n' roll.

Detective fiction could not have existed without Edgar Allan Poe.