MY rule is never to be rude to anyone unless you mean it. Rex Stout More Quotes by Rex Stout More Quotes From Rex Stout The only thing I want is something I can't have; and that is to know if, 100 years from now, people will still buy my books. Rex Stout book people years I have a strong moral sense - by my standards. Rex Stout standards moral strong Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth. Rex Stout fortitude admiration wealth Measure your minds height by the shadow it casts. Rex Stout shadow mind writing Being broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe. Rex Stout disgrace catastrophe broke The more you put in your brain, the more it will hold - if you have one. Rex Stout ifs brain A hole in the ice is dangerous only to those who go skating. Rex Stout skating ice safety All my important decisions are made for me by my subconscious. My frontal lobes are just kidding themselves that they decide anything at all. All they do is think up reasons for the decisions that are already made. Rex Stout important decision thinking Everything in a story should be credible. Rex Stout credible should stories The only two kinds of books could earn an American writer a living are cookbooks and detective novels. Rex Stout writing two book Only fools and philosophers waste time on the unknowable. Rex Stout philosopher fool waste A guest is a jewel on the cushion of hospitality Rex Stout hospitality guests jewels [A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant. Rex Stout pleasant-surprises pessimist optimist Every Sherlock Holmes story has at least one marvelous scene. Rex Stout holmes scene stories I try to know what I need to know. I make sure to know what I want to know. (Nero Wolfe) Rex Stout nero trying needs The trouble with an alarm clock is that what seems sensible when you set it seems absurd when it goes off Rex Stout alarms clock trouble The Glass Key is better than anything Hemingway ever wrote Rex Stout glasses keys There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up. Rex Stout humorous work funny I love to make a mistake. It is my only assurance that I cannot reasonably be expected to assume the responsibility of omniscience. Rex Stout assuming responsibility mistake A person who does not read cannot think. He may have good mental processes, but he has nothing to think about. You can feel for people or natural phenomena and react to them, but they are not ideas. You cannot think about them. Rex Stout people ideas thinking