The Spanish Cape Mystery Quotes

“For some seconds he expressed himself with violence and fluency, describing the nature, habits, temperament, and antecedents (probable) of John Marco with a comprehensiveness, lucidity, and imagery that shocked Judge Macklin and caused Ellery’s eyes to widen with admiration.”
― Ellery Queen, The Spanish Cape Mystery

“Oh, nonsense,” snapped Ellery, honking his klaxon. His face convulsed as he leaned out of the car and yelled to a crowding taxicab with the righteous wrath of all motor-maniacs: “What the hell d’ye think you’re doing?”
― Ellery Queen, The Spanish Cape Mystery

“In one brief swoop through space from grass-grown clifftop to gray rock in blackened water she achieved the significance that passes for immortality in the modern world of news.”
― Ellery Queen, The Spanish Cape Mystery

“MR. ELLERY QUEEN HAD once observed: “Crime, Ducamier or somebody has said, is a cancer on the social body. That’s true, but peculiarly. For despite the fact that cancer is an organism run wild, it nevertheless must possess pattern. Science concedes as much even while research men are trying to recognize it in their laboratories. That they’ve failed is neither here nor there; the pattern must exist. It’s the same story in detection: recognize the pattern and you’re within shooting distance of the ultimate truth.”
― Ellery Queen, The Spanish Cape Mystery

“You never know anything until you’ve proved it right.” “Nonsense. You can’t order life mathematically,” retorted the Judge. “Most of the time you ‘know’ things without factual evidence.” “I’m Coleridge’s ‘thought-benighted skeptic,’” said Ellery unhappily. “I question everything. Sometimes I even question the results of my own thinking. My mental life is very involved.”
― Ellery Queen, The Spanish Cape Mystery

“the quest for the Holy Grail itself is not more beset with difficulties than the merest seeking after one true, unvarnished word.”
― Ellery Queen, The Spanish Cape Mystery

“For some seconds he expressed himself with violence and fluency, describing the nature, habits, temperament, and antecedents (probable) of John Marco with a comprehensiveness, lucidity, and imagery that shocked Judge Macklin and caused Ellery’s eyes to widen with admiration. “Oh, lovely,” said Ellery warmly when Moley perforce paused for breath. “An exquisite object-lesson in invective.”
― Ellery Queen, The Spanish Cape Mystery

“What kind of male swears at a woman?” “Well, sir,” murmured Tiller after a discreet cough, “in fiction it is the—ah—Dashiell Hammett type, sir.” “Ah. Heart of gold beneath hardboiled exterior?” “Yes, sir. Blasphemy, the use of violence…” “Let’s restrict ourselves to life as it is lived, Tiller. By the way, I infer you’re an addict of detective fiction.” “Oh, yes, sir! And I’ve read many of your own, sir, and—” “Hmm,” said Ellery hastily. “Let that pass. In real life, Tiller?” “I fear,” said the valet in a sad murmur, “that there are few hearts of gold in real life, sir. Hard exteriors, certainly. I should say, sir, that there are two general types of woman-abusing men. Confirmed misogynists, sir, and—husbands.”
― Ellery Queen, The Spanish Cape Mystery