Rex Stout Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Afraid? I can dodge folly without backing into fear.

  Rex Stout

  Fear, Dodge, Folly

  Rex Stout (2010). “The Doorbell Rang”, p.15, Bantam

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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”

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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..

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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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• 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

  13 Copy quote

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

  Rex Stout

  Thinking, Two, Stories

  4 Copy quote

• One of the hardest things to believe is that anyone will abandon the effort to escape a charge of murder. It is extremely important to suspend disbelief on that. If you don't, the story is spoiled.

  Rex Stout

  Believe, Effort, Important

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• 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.

  Rex Stout

  Thinking, Fire, Making Love

  "Author Rex Stout vs. the F.B.I". Life magazine, p.132, December 10, 1965.

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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.

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• 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.

  Rex Stout

  Men, Oddities, Technique

  Rex Stout (2013). “Fer-de-Lance/The League of Frightened Men”, p.63, Bantam

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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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• 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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• Women don't require motives that are comprehensible to my intellectual processes.

  Rex Stout

  Women, Intellectual, Process

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• I was reminding myself of the one basic rule for experts on females: confine yourself absolutely to explaining why she did what she has already done because that will save the trouble of explaining why she didn't do what you said she would.

  Rex Stout

  Women, Experts, Female

  Rex Stout (2011). “GAMBIT”, p.81, Bantam

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