The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun.

It is fatal to let any dog know that he is funny, for he immediately loses his head and starts hamming it up.

A man's subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour.

Mere abuse is no criticism.

Rex Stout's narrative and dialogue could not be improved, and he passes the supreme test of being rereadable. I don't know how many times I have reread the Wolfe stories, but plenty. I know exactly what is coming and how it is all going to end, but it doesn't matter. That's writing.

Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is wiser not to stir them.

the ice was not only broken; it was shivered into a million fragments