You can't dance cheerfully. Dancing is too important. It can be wild or solemn or gay or lewd or art for art's sake, but it can't be cheerful.

To read of a detective's daring finesse or ingenious stratagem is a rare joy.

What the tongue has promised, the body must submit to.

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

The only two kinds of books could earn an American writer a living are cookbooks and detective novels.

You can't dance cheerfully. Dancing is too important. It can be wild or solemn or gay or lewd or art for art's sake, but it can't be cheerful.

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