De memoires van Maigret

'I have written this book partly as a tribute to Monsieur Simenon who, by his patient work, has done the polie a service.

I trust that my excursion into print will not be attributed to vanity. Still less to any ambitions of a literary nature. The fact is that a policeman is, so to speak, made by experiences; by the midnight raids on brothels, and backstreet hotels; by the hours of tramping over cold, wet trottoirs; by the days and nights watching and waiting in the draughty caverns of the Gare du Nord.

What successes I have achieved are rooted in these things, the things I did and learned in my early days. Unpleasant as they are to recall (and unsavoury to read), I have set them all down.'