Raymond Chandler

Quotations from the introduction to The Simple Art of Murder (1950):

"An average critic never recognizes an achievement when it happens. He explains it after it has become respectable."

"The technical basis of the Black Mask type of story...was that the scene outranked the plot, in the sense that a good plot was one that made good scenes. The ideal mystery was one you would read if the end was missing."

"...the demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand."

"A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong."