228 Quotes by Rex Stout

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

The minute those two little particles inside a woman's womb have joined together, billions of decisions have been made. A thing like that has to come from entropy.

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.

Doyle stokes in a thousand shrewd touches with no effort at all. Wonderful.

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

The Glass Key is better than anything Hemingway ever wrote

Hemingway never grew out of adolescence. His scope and depth stayed shallow because he had no idea what women are for.

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