228 Quotes by Rex Stout

I try to know what I need to know. I make sure to know what I want to know. (Nero Wolfe)

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.

Wolfe scowled at her. I could see he was torn with conflicting emotions. A female in his kitchen was an outrage. A woman criticizing his or Fritz's cooking was an insult. But corned beef hash was one of life's toughest problems, never yet solved by anyone.

No man was ever taken to hell by a woman unless he already had a ticket in his pocket.

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

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.

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's nothing as safe as ignorance or as dangerous.

The trouble with an alarm clock is that what seems sensible when you set it seems absurd when it goes off