Rex Stout Quotes - Page 3

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

  Rex Stout

  Girl, Cat, Wild Life

  rex stout (1955). “three witnesses”

  6 Copy quote

• Dignities are like faces; no two are the same.

  Rex Stout

  Two, Faces, Dignity

  Rex Stout (2010). “Before Midnight”, p.201, Bantam

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• To say that a man is a reasoning animal is a very different thing than to say that most of man's decisions are based on his rational process. That I don't believe at all.

  Rex Stout

  Believe, Animal, Men

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• The fricassee with dumplings is made by a Mrs. Miller whose husband has left her four times on account of her disposition and returned four times on account of her cooking.

  Rex Stout

  Husband, Food, Cooking

  Rex Stout (2010). “Some Buried Caesar”, p.78, Crimeline

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• No man should tell a lie unless he is shrewd enough to recognize the time for renouncing it, if and when it comes, and knows how to renounce it gracefully.

  Rex Stout

  Lying, Men, Ifs And

  Rex Stout (2010). “Before Midnight”, p.137, Bantam

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• 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.

  Rex Stout

  Character, Two, Fiction

  "Talk with Rex Stout "by Lewis Nichols, The New York Times, November 15, 1953..

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Rex Stout

  Children, Book, Sleep

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

  Rex Stout

  War, Men, Pickles

  Rex Stout (2010). “Over My Dead Body”, p.119, Bantam

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

  Rex Stout

  Luck, Occasions, Picks

  Rex Stout (2010). “Might As Well Be Dead”, p.61, Bantam

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

  Rex Stout

  Joy, Detectives, Finesse

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• 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.

  Rex Stout

  Writing, Character, Born

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

  Rex Stout

  Latter, Distasteful

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• The requisitions of the income tax have added greatly to the attractions of mercenary crime.

  Rex Stout

  Income, Crime, Taxes

  Rex Stout (2011). “THREE MEN OUT”, p.156, Crimeline

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• 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.

  Rex Stout

  Stories, Incredibles, Ends

  " Invitation to Learning" with Jacques Barzun and Elmer Davis; transcript in "The New Invitation to Learning: The Essence of the Great Books of All Times", book by Van Doren (1942), page 246, January 1942.

  8 Copy quote

• As a professional writer of detective stories, I string along with the ballplayers. I love a ball game.

  Rex Stout

  Games, Balls, Stories

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• If your ego is in good shape you will pretend you're surprised if a National Chairman calls you to tell you his party wants to nominate you for President of the United States, but you're not really surprised.

  Rex Stout

  Party, Ego, President

  Rex Stout (2010). “Champagne for One”, p.3, Crimeline

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

  Rex Stout

  Thinking, Two, Stories

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

  Rex Stout

  Never Quit, Spirals, Obvious

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• I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn't have been detective stories until there were democracies, because the very foundation of the detective story is the thesis that if you're guilty you'll get it in the neck and if you're innocent you can't possibly be harmed. No matter who you are.

  Rex Stout

  Mean, Thinking, Democracy

  "The New Invitation to Learning: The Essence of the Great Books of All Times". Book by Mark Van Doren (pp. 248 - 249), 1942.

  5 Copy quote

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

  Rex Stout

  Opportunity, Satisfaction, Permit

  Rex Stout (2011). “FAMILY AFFAIR”, p.40, Crimeline

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• I'm not a collector. I don't keep letters, or books, or souvenirs. But I do keep one copy of each translation of my books into a foreign language. Have you ever seen a murder story printed in Singhalese? Wow!

  Rex Stout

  Book, Stories, Letters

  "Author Rex Stout vs. the F.B.I." by Sandra Schmidt in Life magazine (p. 132), December 10, 1965.

  4 Copy quote

• Wolfe was drinking beer and looking at pictures of snowflakes in a book someone had sent him from Czechoslovakia... ...Wolfe seemed absorbed in the pictures. Looking at him, I said to myself, "He's in a battle with the elements. He's fighting his way through a raging blizzard, just sitting there comfortably looking at pictures of snowflakes. That's the advantage of being an artist, of having imagination." I said aloud, "You mustn't go to sleep, sir, it's fatal. You freeze to death." The League of Frightened Men

  Rex Stout

  Drinking, Book, Sleep

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• Millions of American women, and some men, commit that outrage every summer day. They are turning a superb treat into mere provender. Shucked and boiled in water, sweet corn is edible and nutritious; roasted in the husk in the hottest possible oven for forty minutes, shucked at the table, and buttered and salted, nothing else, it is ambrosia. No chef’s ingenuity and imagination have ever created a finer dish. American women should themselves be boiled in water.

  Rex Stout

  Summer, Sweet, Men

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• 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.

  Rex Stout

  Running, Believe, Mean

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• There is only one object on earth that frightens me: a physicist working on a new trick.

  Rex Stout

  Earth, Tricks, Physicist

  Rex Stout (1975). “A Family Affair: A Nero Wolfe Novel”, Viking Adult

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