I try to know what I need to know. I make sure to know what I want to know. (Nero Wolfe)

I will ride my luck on occasion, but I like to pick the occasion.

What do I believe in? Belief means faith, and there's only one damned thing in the world I have any faith in. That's the idea of American democracy, because it seems to me so obvious that that's the only sensible way to run human affairs.

A guest is a jewel on the cushion of hospitality

The only thing I want is something I can't have; and that is to know if, 100 years from now, people will still buy my books.

As between the intolerable and the merely distasteful, I must choose the latter.

I love books, food, music, sleep, people who work, heated arguments, the United States of America, and my wife and children. I dislike politicians, preachers, genteel persons, people who do not work or are on vacation, closed minds, movies, loud noises, and oiliness.