Wolfe scowled at her. I could see he was torn with conflicting emotions. A female in his kitchen was an outrage. A woman criticizing his or Fritz's cooking was an insult. But corned beef hash was one of life's toughest problems, never yet solved by anyone.

I like to walk around Manhattan, catching glimpses of its wild life, the pigeons and cats and girls.

The trouble with an alarm clock is that what seems sensible when you set it seems absurd when it goes off

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.

If I'm home with no chore at hand, and a package of books has come, the television set and the chess board and the unanswered mail will have to manage without me if one of the books is a detective story.

I think one or two of the later Holmes stories are among the best.

[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.