Where There's a Will Quotes

“Likewise, the division between popular and serious work was a scheme perpetrated by academics in need of creating a false pantheon of living writers when it became impossible to come up with fresh dissertation topics (to earn degrees and prestige) concerning the writers in the true pantheon, who had been analyzed to exhaustion.”
― Rex Stout, Where There's a Will

“Fred put vinegar on things, and no man who did that ate at Wolfe’s table. Fred did it back in 1932, calling for vinegar and stirring it into brown roux for a squab. Nothing had been said, Wolfe regarding it as immoral to interfere with anybody’s meal until it was down and the digestive processes completed, but the next morning he had fired Fred and kept him fired for over a month.”
― Rex Stout, Where There's a Will

“Do you believe it?"

"I know nothing whatever about it."

"It's a damned lie. If you believe it, you are disqualified for what I want you to do."

"I have no basis for belief or disbelief. I don't try to abolish reality by shutting my eyes, nor do I gobble garbage.”
― Rex Stout, Where There's a Will

“If I were you," he suggested, "I'd be a little circumspect about stating what you know, when you possess no evidence.”
― Rex Stout, Where There's a Will

“He was medium-short, with a central circumference that made it seem likely he would grunt if he bent over to tie his shoestring. Nothing, of course, like Nero Wolfe’s globular grandeur.”
― Rex Stout, Where There's a Will

“hung up and went back out to the car and told Fred: “A new era has begun. The earth has turned around and started the other way. Mr. Wolfe has left home in a taxicab to work on a case.” “Huh? Nuts.” “Nope. As Fritz says, honest for God. He really has. So if you’ll—” “But Jesus, Archie. He’ll get killed or something.”
― Rex Stout, Where There's a Will

“I don’t try to abolish reality by shutting my eyes, nor do I gobble garbage.”
― Rex Stout, Where There's a Will

“had to gulp the coffee, and it was as hot as hell’s dishwater.”
― Rex Stout, Where There's a Will

“Would you mind removing your hat, Miss Dunn? I deduce the thing is a hat, because it’s on your head. Thank you. I don’t like restaurant conventions in my dining room.”
― Rex Stout, Where There's a Will