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Rex Stout Quotes
1886–1975 United States
Rex Stout (1 December 1886 – 27 October 1975) was an American author of detective fiction most famous as the creator of the fictional detective Nero Wolfe. He was also prominent in the allied efforts of World War II as the announcer of the wartime radio broadcasts of Our Secret Weapon.
Also known as: Stout, Rex
Random Rex Stout quote
19 quotes
In a world that operates largely at random, coincidences are to be expected, but any one of them must always be mistrusted.
Champagne for One (1958)
There's nothing as safe as ignorance — or as dangerous.
The Squirt and the Monkey (1951)
My God you love to get them, and good Lord you hate to answer them.
To be broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe.
Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.
as stated by Nero Wolfe in The Red Box (1937)
Come, sir, is time really so precious? Mine isn't. If yours is, all the more tempting to steal a little.
portrays Nero Wolfe in A Right to Die (1964)
It is impossible for any Sherlock Holmes story not to have at least one marvelous scene.
There isn't a generation gap between you and me – there's two.
The incredible thing happens at the beginning of the story always, you notice, not the end. A Sherlock Holmes story is never a trick story.
This is a pleasant surprise, Archie. I would not have believed it. That of course is the advantage of being a pessimist; a pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.
Of course the modern detective story puts off its best tricks till the last, but Doyle always put his best tricks first and that's why they're still the best ones.
Sarcasm is not the rapier of wit its wielders seem to believe it to be, but merely a club: it may, by dint of brute force, occasionally raise bruises, but it never cuts or pierces.
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.
There are only two kinds of books which you can write and be pretty sure you're going to make a living – cook books and detective stories.
There are two kinds of characters in all fiction, the born and the synthetic. If the writer has to ask himself questions – is he tall, is he short? – he had better quit.
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.
There are various ways to call a man a liar. One way is just to scream it at him, which doesn't prove anything. Another is to establish facts by long and patient investigation. Still another way is not to call him a liar at all – let him do it himself.
There are damn few great writers and I'm not one of them. While I could afford to I played with words. When I could no longer afford that I wrote for money.
One trouble with living beyond your deserved number of years is that there's always some reason to live another year. And I'd like to live another year so that Nixon won't be President. If he's re-elected I'll have to live another four years.
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