Quotes from Anthony Horowitz

There are some people who argue that we are too sensitive these days, that because we're so afraid of causing offence, we no longer engage in any serious sort of argument at all. But that's how it is. It's why political chat-shows on television have become so very boring. There are narrow lines between which all public conversations have to take place and even a single poorly chosen word can bring all sorts of trouble down on

But I'm not sure it actually matters what we read. Our lives continue along the straight lines that have been set out for us. Fiction merely allows us a glimpse of the alternative.

You think ghosts and witches and vampires and ghosts and two-headed monsters are bad. Why? Do you know what that is, David? It's prejudice. Racial prejudice!

One can think of the truth as eine vertiefung – a sort of deep valley which may not be visible from a distance but which will come upon you quite suddenly. There are many ways to arrive there.

Hawthorne certainly had a magnetic personality. Although, of course, magnets can repel as well as attract.

The birds fly in the wrong places and there are too many stars in the sky.

We're all on the road to ruin but some are further ahead than others.

You look at me as if I were a conjuror,' Holmes remarked, with a laugh.

Holmes is depressed. Poirot is vain. Miss Marple is brusque and eccentric. They don't have to be attractive. Look at Nero Wolfe who was so fat that he couldn't even leave his New York home and had to have a custom-made chair to support his weight!

You must know that feeling when it's raining outside and the heating's on and you lose yourself, utterly, in a book.

What makes them dangerous is their belief that they should not be stopped, that they are justified in what they do. I will not speak of my experiences in the war, but I will say this. The greatest evil occurs when people, no matter what their aims or their motives, become utterly convinced that they are right.

The few questions I had asked had been futile and I was suddenly dispirited, for it had occurred to me that had Holmes been present, he would have probably have solved the entire mystery by now.

For him, politeness was a surgical mask, something he slipped on before he took out his scalpel.

He wasn't being deliberately offensive. It was just that offensive was his default mode.

Why does anyone take photographs ever? We never look at them anymore.

When your business is death, the only death you should never consider is your own.

The house is seventies modern with sliding windows, gas-effect and a giant TV in the living room. There are almost no books. I'm not making any judgement. It's just the sort of thing I can't help but notice.

You'd have thought that after twenty years editing murder mysteries I'd have noticed when I found myself in the middle of one.

A bottle of wine. A family-sized packet of Nacho Cheese Flavoured Tortilla Chips and a jar of hot salsa dip. A packet of cigarettes on the side (I know, I know). The rain hammering against the windows. And a book. What could have been lovelier?

Alan invented all sorts of ways of expressing things so that only he and I understood. He used language as a place for us to hide.

You see the world this way because you're greedy and mad. People give to charity because they want to help.

Inspector Morse, Taggart, Lewis, Foyle's War, Endeavour, A Touch of Frost, Luther, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Cracker, Broadchurch and even bloody Maigret and Wallander – British TV would disappear into a dot on the screen without murder.

I hear it still. As I lay down my pen and take to my bed, I am aware of the bow being drawn across the bridge and the music rises into the night sky. It is far away and barely audible - but there it is! A pizzicato. Then a tremelo. The style is unmistakable. It is Sherlock Holmes who is playing. It must be. I hope with all my heart that he is playing for me . . .

No, the events which I am about to describe were simply too monstrous, too shocking to appear in print. They still are. It is no exaggeration to suggest that they would tear apart the entire fabric of society and, particularly at a time of war, this is something I cannot risk.