The Westing Game Quotes

“Life, too, is senseless unless you know who you are, what you want, and which way the wind blows.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Smiling without good reason is demeaning.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“The poor are crazy, the rich just eccentric. - James Shin Hoo”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Hi Sandy, I won!”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“I remember the will said, 'May God thy gold refine.' That must be from the Bible."
"Shakespeare," Turtle said. All quotations were either from the Bible or Shakespeare.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Senseless, you say? Death is senseless yet makes way for the living. Life, too, is senseless unless you know who you are, what you want, and which way the wind blows.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Your trouble comes from years of wearing the wrong kind of shoes. - Jake Wexler”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Angela could not be the bomber, not that sweet, pretty thing. Thing? Is that how she regarded that young woman, as a thing? And what had she ever said to her except "I hear you're getting married, Angela" or "How pretty you look, Angela." Had anyone asked her about her ideas, her hopes, her plans? If I had been treated like that I'd have used dynamite, not fireworks; no, I would have just walked out and kept right on going. But Angela was different.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east. Strange!”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Angela Wexler, person”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Friday was back to normal, if the actions of suspicious would-be heirs competing for a two-hundred-million-dollar prize could be considered normal.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Grace sat down where the chair wasn't.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“She could have been an interior decorator, a good one, too, if it wasn’t for the pressing demands of so on and so forth.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Sunset Towers faced east and had no towers.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“You, too, may strike it rich who dares to play the Westing game.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“You can't read my shorthand because I wrote in Polish.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Today I have gathered together my nearest and dearest, my sixteen nieces and nephews (Sit down, Grace Windsor Wexler!) to view the body of your Uncle Sam for the last time. Tomorrow its ashes will be scattered to the four winds. I, Samuel W. Westing, hereby swear that I did not die of natural causes. My life was taken from me–by one of you!”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Frenssh-fry”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Sandy fidgeted with his pen. “There’s something I didn’t write down. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you, you being a judge and all, but, well, Jake Wexler… he’s a bookie.”

No, he should not have told her. “A small-time operator, I’m sure, Mr. McSouthers,” the judge replied coldly. “It can have no bearing on the matter before us. Sam Westing manipulated people, cheated workers, bribed officials, stole ideas, but Sam Westing never smoked or drank or placed a bet. Give me a bookie any day over such a fine, upstanding, clean-living man.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Jake Wexler, standing or sitting when not lying down”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“TENTH • Each pair in attendance will now receive an envelope containing a set of clues. No two sets of clues are alike. It is not what you have, it’s what you don’t have that counts.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Read it out loud, dear,” Grace ordered, as Angela opened the card tied to the yellow-ribboned box. To the bride-to-be in the kitchen stuck, An asparagus cooker and lots of luck. from Cookie Barfspringer “Thank you,” Angela said, wondering which one was the Barfspringer. The next gift was an egg poacher. The box in pink ribbons contained another asparagus cooker. “I sure hope Doctor Deere likes asparagus,” someone remarked.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Hello, Jake, I’m so glad you could come,” Sunny (as Madame Hoo was now called) said, shaking the hand of the chairman of the State Gambling Commission.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Hello, Jake, I'm glad you could come," Sunny (as Madame Hoo was now called) said, shaking the hand of the chairman of the State Gambling Commission.

"Boom!" Jake Wexler replied.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Hey Chris, bet you don't know the Latin name of the red-headed woodpecker."

That was a hard one. Chris had to say Melanerpes erythrocephalus very slowly.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“It is not what you have, it’s what you don’t have that counts.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“TURTLE SPENT THE night at the bedside of eighty-five-year-old Julian R. Eastman. T. R. Wexler had a master’s degree in business administration, an advanced degree in corporate law, and had served two years as legal counsel to the Westing Paper Products Corporation. She had made one million dollars in the stock market, lost it all, then made five million more.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Can you stand on your legs?” Sydelle Pulaski asked. “Can you walk at all?”

People never asked Chris those questions; they whispered them to his parents behind his back. “N-n-no. Why?”

“What better disguise for a thief or a murderer than a wheelchair, the perfect alibi.”

Chris enjoyed being taken for the criminal type. Now they really were friends.”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“Sandy”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game

“daughter of the servants.” “Gee, you must have been lonely, Judge, having nobody to play with.” “I played with Sam Westing—chess. Hour after hour I sat staring down at that chessboard. He lectured me, he insulted me, and he won every game.” The judge thought of their last game: She had been so excited about taking his queen, only to have the master checkmate her in the next move. Sam Westing had deliberately sacrificed his queen and she had fallen for it. “Stupid child, you can’t have a brain in that frizzy head to make a move like that.” Those were the last words he ever said to her. The judge continued: “I was sent to boarding school when I was twelve. My parents visited me at school when they could, but I never set foot in the Westing house again, not until two weeks ago.” “Your folks must have really worked hard,” Sandy said. “An education like that costs a fortune.” “Sam Westing paid for my education. He saw that I was accepted into the best schools, probably arranged for my first job, perhaps more, I don’t know.” “That’s the first decent thing I’ve heard about the old man.” “Hardly decent, Mr. McSouthers. It was to Sam Westing’s advantage to have a judge in his debt. Needless to say, I have excused myself from every case remotely connected with”
― Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game