Nor is it any part of my thesis to maintain that it [the detective story] is a vital and significant form of art. There are no vital and significant forms of art; there is only art, and precious little of that. The growth of populations has in no way increased the amount; it has merely increased the adeptness with which substitutes can be produced and packaged.
From the Book The Simple Art of Murder, 1945, ISBN 0394757653
Copyright © 1945 by Raymond Chandler
No. 54