Rex Stout Quotes & Sayings

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

“There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up.”

“To say that 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.”

“If I'm home with no chore at hand, and a package of books has come, the television set and the chess board and the unanswered mail will have to manage without me if one of the books is a detective story.”

“Every Sherlock Holmes story has at least one marvelous scene.”

“I have a strong moral sense - by my standards.”

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

“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.”

“I still can't decide which is more fun - reading or writing.”

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