Hugo?’ ‘Millicent?’ ‘Is that you?’ ‘Yes. Is that you?’ ‘Yes.’ Anything in the nature of misunderstanding was cleared away. It was both of them.

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.

The least thing upset him on the links. He missed short putts because of the uproar of the butterflies in the adjoining meadows.

A girl who bonnets a policeman with an ashcan full of bottles is obviously good wife-and-mother timber.

It was my Uncle George who discovered that alcohol was a food well in advance of modern medical thought.

Men capable of governing empires fail to control a small white ball, which presents no difficulties whetever to others with one ounce more brain than a cuckoo clock. I wish to goodness I knew the man who invented this infernal game. I'd strangle him. But I suppose he's been dead for ages. Still, I could go and jump on his grave.

Employers are like horses — they require management.