24 Quotes by Ben Schott

As Sherlock Holmes once observed: When you've excluded the inevitable, whatever remains, however unpalatable, must be lunch.

Such diplomacy is not to be sneezed at, for the suit is a window to the soul: lightweight cotton when cash is tight, Italian cashmere when an inheritance lands; waistlines drawn in during illness or anxiety, and let out at times of excess. Weddings, funerals, christenings, and court appearances—all of life's landmarks are sanctified, quietly and confidentially, by one's tailor.

There are, of course, three ways to hide behind a sofa.

Properly cared for, a Savile Row suit can be handed down the generations—like gout.

I have always loved the fluidity of language - delighting in dialects, dictionaries, slang and neologisms.

The web can be a fast trip to the library, giving you immediate access to a government report, or it can filter media for you, which is why I look at around 15- 20 of these sites every day.

For me, writing is like being taken on a walk by a footnote: It's amazing where you end up.

I read the papers online, and something usually piques my curiosity - that will then be the baseline of my research for the day.

If I'm researching something strange and rococo, I'll go to the London Library or the British Library and look it up in books.