Leslie Charteris Quotes & Sayings

The Saint did not seem to be aware that he was multiplying miracles with an easy grace that would have made a Grand Lama look like a third-rate three-card man. — Leslie Charteris

Everything I write is designed to be milked to the last drop of revenue. — Leslie Charteris

Let's see what you've got - as the actress said to the bishop, — Leslie Charteris

In 1938, when I had decided that the only way to see the country was in a trailer, and I built the trailer which I still have and lived in it for eighteen months, and learned America from San Diego to the Canadian border, from Miami to New Jersey, and east to west in between. — Leslie Charteris

His spirits were too elastic to know the meaning of depression, and the setback had intriguing angles to it which he was broad-minded enough to appreciate as an artist. — Leslie Charteris

In 1939 I hadn't even realized that this was an immigration problem. — Leslie Charteris

The reason is that for many years I have avoided reading anything whatsoever that approaches my own line of country, out of a somewhat fanatical desire to avoid the risk of unconscious imitation. — Leslie Charteris

For there is a price ticket on everything that puts a whizz into life, and adventure follows the rule. It's distressing, but there you are. — Leslie Charteris

If I didn't see its place in the Saga when I planned it, I probably wouldn't write it at all. — Leslie Charteris

I'm called the Saint," he murmured. "But don't let us get melodramatic about it, son. The last man who got melodramatic with me was hanged at Exeter six months back. It don't seem to be healthy! — Leslie Charteris

I had still never read one of the Bond books when the movie Dr. No came out. — Leslie Charteris

Others, amounting to four novels and a mess of short stories which I did not think worth preserving, I have done my best to eliminate from the record by refusing all requests for permission to reprint them, and I hope I have done a good job of making them hard to unearth. — Leslie Charteris

The gleam in their eyes telegraphs only too clearly that they are hoping for a headline, which of course means something disparaging, because nothing makes such good copy as a feud. — Leslie Charteris

Simon Templar was a man who couldn't help spreading melodrama all around him like an infectious disease. — Leslie Charteris

Regretfully, I have decided that if the Saint Saga must remain permanently in print in its entirety, then it can only do so in its original form. — Leslie Charteris

Any stupid remark, quoted often enough, becomes gospel. — Leslie Charteris

It was as if a rocket had exploded inside him, flooding all the dark places in his mind with light when he had caught up in that dynamic moment with the lead his instinct for adventure had given him. — Leslie Charteris

He believes in romance. He isn't merely going through the mechanical movements of a man in an exciting situation. He is, vitally and positively squeezing the last drop of delight from living the best life he knows in the best way he can. — Leslie Charteris

Do you think I'd carry a gun in a suit like this ? My tailor would throw a fit. — Leslie Charteris

It sounds good," he said. "It's the caterpillar's spats! — Leslie Charteris

About the Saint's amorous adventures, by the way, I can't speak so brazenly. — Leslie Charteris

If you'd only met her in Gotham, for instance, I should have had a song all ready for you. When you came in, I was just perfecting a little song about a wild woman of Gotham, who made love to young men and then shot 'em - till — Leslie Charteris

It should cause no surprise that anyone so lazy as myself should be economical to the point of miserliness with everything he writes. — Leslie Charteris

While the Saint, when it was necessary to play the part, could assume an aspect of proud or unprincipled poverty that would evoke a responsive twang from any normal heartstring, his usual appearance, fortunately or unfortunately, suggested a person who was so far on the other side of having been born with a silver spoon in his mouth that he must have been seriously shocked when he first learned that gold spoons were not standard issue. — Leslie Charteris

I am an absurd idealist. But I believe that all that must come true. For, unless it comes true, the world will be laid desolate. And I believe that it can come true. I believe that, by the grace of God, men will awake presently and be men again, and colour and laughter and splendid living will return to a grey civilisation. But that will only come true because a few men will believe in it, and fight for it, and fight in its name against everything that sneers and snarls at that ideal. — Leslie Charteris