Steven Moffat Quotes

Mysteries and thrillers are not the same things, though they are literary siblings. Roughly put, I would say the distinction is that mysteries emphasize motive and psychology whereas thrillers rely more heavily on action and plot.

A lot of the stories I write about have an element of mystery. They're crime stories or conspiracy stories or quests. They do have built into them revelations and twists. But the revelations, to me, come from seeing history as it's unfolding, or life as it's unfolding.

Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.

It's quite exciting," said Sherlock Holmes, with a yawn.

I really cannot understand the point of what you're saying. Really,' said Clotilde, looking at her. 'What a very extraordinary person you are. What sort of a woman are you? Why are you talking like this? Who are you?' Miss Marple pulled down the mass of pink wool that encircled her head, a pink wool scarf of the same kind that she had once worn in the West Indies. 'One of my names,' she said, 'is Nemesis.' 'Nemesis? And what does that mean?' 'I think you know,' said Miss Marple. 'You are a very well educated woman. Nemesis is long delayed sometimes, but it comes in the end.

The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

There's no police like Holmes.

"I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de coeur."

As I turned away, I saw Holmes, with his back against a rock and his arms folded, gazing down at the rush of the waters. It was the last that I was ever destined to see of him in this world. - Watson.

Holmes, I'm a 24 year old prude.

There are secrets at the heart of every story; there is something that must be uncovered or discovered, both by the reader and by the characters.

I was so obsessed by Lisbeth Salander and all the characters, but of course if you're going to write a crime novel worthy of Stieg Larsson, you need a plot, don't you?

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

I do believe that even if you're the most clever person around and you figure out the 'whodunit' and you're not surprised - that shouldn't prevent you from enjoying the story.

Well, I think storytellers have always found murder a fascinating device.

When I think of Sherlock Holmes, I think of a guy who can wander into the confusion of life and sort of pluck out answers at will.

Suspense is my thing. I think I am able to make people want to keep turning pages. They want to know what happens.

Anything that's secret, clandestine, loaded with such a supercargo of speculation, misinformation, disinformation and, for that matter, accurate revelations, creates an appetite.

A mystery is a whodunit. You know what happened, but not how or who's behind it. A thriller, or a suspense, is a howdunit. You know what happened, and you usually know who did it, but you keep reading because you want to know how they pulled it off.

The really good thing about 'Sleepy Hollow' is you have no idea who's going to die when... But then equally, we showed in the pilot several people can come back to life, so you have no idea who's going to come back. Death means very little in our Sleepy Hollow, so expect more surprise deaths and more surprise resurrections.

Nobody's ever really dead on 'Game of Thrones.'

There is nothing better than a really cool mystery: you don't know what's going to happen, so you keep turning those pages or watching that series.

I grew up reading thrillers. Honestly, I was always drawn to the very detailed ones like Patricia Cornwell. I love details.

What keeps readers turning pages is suspense, which you can create using a variety of techniques, including tension, pacing and foreshadowing.

I always make a point of keeping the most pleasant-sounding name for the murderer. As he or she is bound to come to an unpleasant end, it seems the very least the author can do.