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It is always wiser, where there is a choice, to trust inertia. It is the greatest force in the world.

Rex Stout

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Rex Stout
Age: 88 †
Born: 1886
Born: December 1
Died: 1975
Died: October 27
Novelist
Radio Personality
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Noblesville
Indiana
Trust
Greatest
Choices
Force
Always
World
Inertia
Wiser
Choice

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I have a strong moral sense - by my standards.
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I think one or two of the later Holmes stories are among the best.
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Hemingway never grew out of adolescence. His scope and depth stayed shallow because he had no idea what women are for.
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I still can't decide which is more fun - reading or writing.
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I love to make a mistake. It is my only assurance that I cannot reasonably be expected to assume the responsibility of omniscience.
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Every book takes me from 35 to 41 days to write. I don't know why that is. I've tried to get it down to 30 or 31, depending on the length of the month, but it won't work. I don't drink while I'm writing because it fuddles my logical processes, but when I finish a book I go down to the kitchen and pour myself a big belt.
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If I'm home with no chore at hand, and a package of books has come, the television set and the chess board and the unanswered mail will have to manage without me if one of the books is a detective story.
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A character who is thought-out is not born, he or she is contrived. A born character is round, a thought-out character is flat.
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There are two kinds of characters in all fiction, the born and the synthetic. If the writer has to ask himself questions - is he tall, is he short? - he had better quit.
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I will ride my luck on occasion, but I like to pick the occasion.
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What do I believe in? Belief means faith, and there's only one damned thing in the world I have any faith in. That's the idea of American democracy, because it seems to me so obvious that that's the only sensible way to run human affairs.
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The Glass Key is better than anything Hemingway ever wrote
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Women don't require motives that are comprehensible to my intellectual processes.
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The constant petty behests of life permit few opportunities for major satisfactions, and when one is offered it should be seized.
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Everything in a story should be credible.
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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.
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I understand the technique of eccentricity it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action.
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A guest is a jewel on the cushion of hospitality
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I love books, food, music, sleep, people who work, heated arguments, the United States of America, and my wife and children. I dislike politicians, preachers, genteel persons, people who do not work or are on vacation, closed minds, movies, loud noises, and oiliness.
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Measure your minds height by the shadow it casts.
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