Рекс Стаут цитаты

„Закон - это завистливое чудовище...“

—  Рекс Стаут

Общие цитаты

„We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits.“

—  Rex Stout, книга The Rubber Band

Источник: The Rubber Band

„[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.“

—  Rex Stout, книга Fer-de-Lance

Источник: Fer-de-Lance

„Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.“

—  Rex Stout, книга The Red Box

Источник: The Red Box

„I will ride my luck on occasion, but I like to pick the occasion.“

—  Rex Stout, книга Might as Well Be Dead

Источник: Might as Well Be Dead

„Genius is fine for the ignition spark, but to get there someone has to see that the radiator doesn't leak and no tire is flat.“

—  Rex Stout, книга The Doorbell Rang

Источник: The Doorbell Rang

„Afraid? I can dodge folly without backing into fear.“

—  Rex Stout, книга The Doorbell Rang

Источник: The Doorbell Rang

„The more you put in your brain, the more it will hold -- if you have one.“

—  Rex Stout

„A man may debar nonsense from his library of reason, but not from the arena of his impulses.“

—  Rex Stout, книга The League of Frightened Men

Источник: The League of Frightened Men

„I don't approve of open fires. You can't think, or talk or even make love in front of a fireplace. All you can do is stare at it.“

—  Rex Stout

Life

„The incredible thing happens at the beginning of the story always, you notice, not the end. A Sherlock Holmes story is never a trick story.“

—  Rex Stout

Rex Stout, page 246
Invitation to Learning

„There are various ways to call a man a liar. One way is just to scream it at him, which doesn't prove anything. Another is to establish facts by long and patient investigation. Still another way is not to call him a liar at all — let him do it himself.“

—  Rex Stout

On his work on Our Secret Weapon, as quoted in "Mystery Story Writer Turns Detective, Finding Axis Lies; Rex Stout, Creator of Nero Wolfe, Using Our Secret Weapon — Truth" by Trudi McCullough in The Milwaukee Journal (30 September 1942) http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19420930&id=tO4ZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6SIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3279,6165010

„The only difference between me and most people is that I'm perfectly aware that 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

Life

„There are only two kinds of books which you can write and be pretty sure you're going to make a living — cook books and detective stories.“

—  Rex Stout

Rex Stout, page 3

„It is impossible for any Sherlock Holmes story not to have at least one marvelous scene.“

—  Rex Stout

Rex Stout, page 247
Invitation to Learning

„I'm not a collector. I don't keep letters, or books, or souvenirs. But I do keep one copy of each translation of my books into a foreign language. Have you ever seen a murder story printed in Singhalese? Wow!“

—  Rex Stout

Life

„Any man who undertakes to write a play is either a damn fool or a hero, I don't know which. When you write a book, you pull it out of the typewriter and that's that. When you write a play you've got to go on with the producer and the director and the actors and the rehearsals and the …“

—  Rex Stout

Life

„Bosh. I find a rival — but no, I won't flatter myself that Tecumseh Fox would consider himself a rival of Dol Bonner — I find an eminent detective in your apartment, and that alone is enough, without adding that he is concealed in your bedroom while I am discussing my business with you…“

—  Rex Stout, книга Bad for Business

Dol Bonner, to her employee Amy Duncan, chapter 2
Bad for Business

„I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn't have been detective stories until there were democracies, because the very foundation of the detective story is the thesis that if you're guilty you'll get it in the neck and if you're innocent you can't possibly be harmed. No matter who you are. There was no such conception of justice until after 1830. There was no such thing as a policeman or a detective in the world before 1830, because the modern conception of the policeman and detective, namely, a man whose only function is to find out who did it and then get the evidence that will punish him, did not exist. … In Paris before the year 1800 — read the Dumas stories — there were gangs of people whose business was to go out and punish wrongdoers. But why? Because they had hurt De Marillac or Richelieu or the Duke or some Huguenot noble, not just because they had harmed society. It is only the modern policeman that is out to protect society.“

—  Rex Stout

Rex Stout, pp. 248–249
Invitation to Learning