“We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits.”
Rex Stout livre The Rubber Band
Source: The Rubber Band
Rex Stout, de son nom complet Rex Todhunter Stout, né le 1er décembre 1886 à Noblesville, en Indiana, et mort le 27 octobre 1975 à Danbury, au Connecticut, est un écrivain américain de roman policier, connu surtout grâce aux personnages de Nero Wolfe, détective de fiction gargantuesque que le critique Will Cuppy qualifiera de Falstaff des détectives, et de son assistant, Archie Goodwin, aussi le narrateur des enquêtes.
En 2000, l'ensemble des aventures de Nero Wolfe a reçu le prix de la meilleure série policière lors de la plus grande rencontre internationale consacrée au roman policier, le Bouchercon, les autres candidats nommés étant Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett et Dorothy Sayers. Wikipedia

“We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits.”
Rex Stout livre The Rubber Band
Source: The Rubber Band
“[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.”
Rex Stout livre Fer-de-Lance
Source: Fer-de-Lance
“I will ride my luck on occasion, but I like to pick the occasion.”
Rex Stout livre Might as Well Be Dead
Source: Might as Well Be Dead
Rex Stout livre The Doorbell Rang
Source: The Doorbell Rang
“Afraid? I can dodge folly without backing into fear.”
Rex Stout livre The Doorbell Rang
Source: The Doorbell Rang
“A man may debar nonsense from his library of reason, but not from the arena of his impulses.”
Rex Stout livre The League of Frightened Men
Source: The League of Frightened Men
Life, "Author Rex Stout vs. the F.B.I."
Rex Stout livre Bad for Business
Dol Bonner, to her employee Amy Duncan, chapter 2
Bad for Business
Rex Stout, on why he turned from writing serious fiction to detective stories
The New York Times, "An Interview with Mister Rex Stout"
Rex Stout, page 244
Invitation to Learning
Life, "Author Rex Stout vs. the F.B.I."
“My God you love to get them, and good Lord you hate to answer them.”
On letters from his readers
The New York Times, "Rex Stout, 85, Gives Clues on Good Writing"
Rex Stout, pp. 248–249
Invitation to Learning
Life, "Author Rex Stout vs. the F.B.I."
“There isn't a generation gap between you and me — there's two.”
Rex Stout to photographer Jill Krementz
Publishers Weekly
Life, "Author Rex Stout vs. the F.B.I."
he had better quit.
Rex Stout
The New York Times, "Talk with Rex Stout"
Rex Stout, who published two titles — The Nero Wolfe Cookbook and Please Pass the Guilt — in his 86th year
Publishers Weekly
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
Life, "Author Rex Stout vs. the F.B.I."
Life, "Author Rex Stout vs. the F.B.I."
Rex Stout, page 3
Royal Decree: Conversations with Rex Stout
“It is impossible for any Sherlock Holmes story not to have at least one marvelous scene.”
Rex Stout, page 247
Invitation to Learning
Nixon was re-elected in 1972, but Stout survived his August 1974 resignation from the Presidency by more than a year.
The New York Times, "Rex Stout, 85, Gives Clues on Good Writing"