Rex Stout Quotes

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.

Being broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe.

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.

The more you put in your brain, the more it will hold - if you have one.

Measure your minds height by the shadow it casts.

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

A character who is thought-out is not born, he or she is contrived. A born character is round, a thought-out character is flat.

A schedule broken at will becomes a mere procession of vagaries.

Subtlety chases the obvious up a never-ending spiral and never quite catches it.

War doesn't mature men; it merely pickles them in the brine of disgust and dread.

Every Sherlock Holmes story has at least one marvelous scene.

Labels are for the things men make, not for men. The most primitive man is too complex to be labeled.

I have never regarded myself as this or that. I have been too busy being myself to bother about regarding myself.

Dignities are like faces; no two are the same.

Hemingway never grew out of adolescence. His scope and depth stayed shallow because he had no idea what women are for.

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

I don't approve of open fires. You can't think, or talk or even make love in front of a fireplace. All you can do is stare at it.

Every book takes me from 35 to 41 days to write. I don't know why that is. I've tried to get it down to 30 or 31, depending on the length of the month, but it won't work. I don't drink while I'm writing because it fuddles my logical processes, but when I finish a book I go down to the kitchen and pour myself a big belt.

Opinions, from experts, cost money.

Afraid? I can dodge folly without backing into fear.

Everyone has something they don't want anyone to see; that is one of the functions of a home, to provide a spot to keep such things.

I don't answer questions containing two or more unsupported assumptions.

The constant petty behests of life permit few opportunities for major satisfactions, and when one is offered it should be seized.

I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action.

All my important decisions are made for me by my subconscious. My frontal lobes are just kidding themselves that they decide anything at all. All they do is think up reasons for the decisions that are already made.