Pietr the Latvian, του Georges Simenon

"...and did his best to straighten out his tie - he'd never learned how to do a proper knot." P.3

"The Majestic could not stomach him. Maigret persisted in being a big black unmoving stain amidst the gilding, the chandeliers, the comings and goings of silk evening gowns, fur coats and perfumed, sparkling silhouettes." P.15

"Inside every wrong-doer and crook there lives a human being. In addition, of course, there is an opponent in a game, and it's the player that the police are inclined to see. As a rule, that's what they go after...But what he sought, what he waited and watched out for, was the crack in the wall. In other words, the instant when the human being comes out from the opponent." P.38

"Seats flapping up made aracket and shuffling feet sounded like the swell of the sea." P.57

"He looked like a tourist in a historic church trying to work out without the help of a guide what there was to inspect." P.85

"Every race has its own smell, and other races hate it." P.115

"...the veneer of polite indifference that passes fot human relations in everyday life." P.144