Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery.

Everything is a mystery, ourselves, and all things both simple and humble.

I do read P.D. James because she pays much more attention to character, to a particular atmosphere or setting. But most mystery writers, I think, are controlled by the plot.

When it began to grow dark, the Rat, with an air of excitement and mystery, summoned them back into the parlour, stood each of them up alongside of his little heap, and proceeded to dress them up for the coming expedition.

The first proper mystery novel that I read was 'Murder On the Orient Express' with a gaunt David Niven and a cherubic Peter Ustinov on the cover. 'Orient Express,' you'll recall, is the one where everyone did it, which delighted me no end, and I was immediately hooked.

A lot of journalists are talented enough to write a mystery novel, and I would say that most of the top-end mystery writers actually started out as reporters. But there is more to it than just the writing; there's a learning process, and most journalists aren't willing to do it.

I've always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults.

Trying to solve the mystery is what I enjoy most about writing.

There wasn't really a lot of difference from a Mississippi perspective between what Elvis did on 'Mystery Train' or 'Milkcow Blues' or what Bill Monroe was playing or what Flatt and Scruggs was playing; it was rock 'n' roll to me.

Esoteric or inner knowledge is no different from other kinds of human knowledge and ability. It is a mystery for the average person only to the extent that writing is a mystery for those who have not yet learned to write.

I started writing half a paragraph of a mystery novel, half a paragraph there, and they were terrible.

What I do is create an aura of mystery.

When I see an image in my head that compels me, where there's this mystery about what's going to happen next or could happen next, I'll be intrigued. There are so many scripts that you read, and you know exactly what's going to happen, and there aren't too many where you can't tell within the first 20 pages where it's going.

Marriage is a mystery, and part of it is just being kind to each other, not being selfish.

The more people know about an actor the less convincing they become. A bit of mystery's a good thing.

I am searching for abstract ways of expressing reality, abstract forms that will enlighten my own mystery.

Say what you will about Donald Trump, he cares. He cares about things I don't, and he has some awful ideas, and he is an amoral man in so many ways. But, in contrast to Obama, his emotions are no mystery.

There are still things technically about films that I think are a mystery to me and I want to remain a mystery. I don't particularly want to know what everyone's job is because I've got lines to learn.

I think those who object to my characterizing man as simple want somehow to retain a deep mystery at his core.

I like the unknown. I like mystery.