Talk:Where There's a Will
(A third option is for you to leave your comments on the article page for this work, in the section titled Discuss This Work or Quotations from it.)
Archie Goodwin in chapter 1, page 2
"He might be eccentric enough to find pleasure in a personal and intimate test of the operations of the New Deal WPA, but if I had my way about it the only meaning WPA would ever have for yours truly would be Wolfe Pays Archie.”
ib., p. 3
“They are thinking of prosecuting her under the anti-trust law for her monopoly on brain cells.” – Archie speaking about May Hawthorne.
ib., p. 6
“She looked hot, peevish, beautiful and overwhelming. When she thanked me for her chair I decided to marry her as soon as I could save up. enough to buy a new pair of shoes.”
ch. 3, p. 36
“He [Wolfe] never goes to see anybody. He dislikes motion. He passed a law making it a criminal offense for his feet to remove him from his house except on rare occasions, and never on business. He hires me to run around inviting people to come to see him.”
ib., p. 38
“I advise you not to see Nero Wolfe. I’m being disloyal, of course, but I’m naturally treacherous anyhow, and besides, I don’t like the way they’re ganging up. on you. I felt that way already, even before I saw you, but now…”
“Now treachery is sweet.”
“It could be.”
ch. 7, p. 88
“He’s a giraffe. I damn near ran my legs off. The damn fool walked clear to 8th Street!”
“We’ll warn him not to do that again. How you must have suffered. Skip. things like that. I can’t bear it.”
“Go spit up. a rope.”
ib., p. 90
“A new era has begun. The earth has turned around and started the other way. Mr. Wolfe has left home in a taxicab to work on a case.”
ib., p. 91
"The butler who opened the door had distinguished ancestry oozing from every pore. I said:
“Good morning, Jeeves. I’m Lord Goodwin. If Mr. Nero Wolfe got here alive, he’s expecting me. A big fat man. Is he here?”
ch. 8, p. 107
“When she came in and pressed her hands to her temples like the heroine at the end of the second act, I had decided that the wedding was off, but it wasn’t easy as that. Something that went out from her made you forget she was a professional who knew how to get a million people to pay forty-four at the box office to watch her work. I would have died for her on the spot if I hadn’t been busy taking notes.”
ib., p. 113
“He lifted the covers from the servers with a sanguine hope and a stern misgiving fighting for the mastery in his expression. When no steam came out he looked so disconcerted I could have wept.”
ch. 9, p 110
“By Jiminy,” I said, with the whine I knew set his teeth on edge, “you sure are grilling them. Talk about ruthless. It gives me nervous prostration just to see them suffer. And squirm under your merciless thrusts. Lovin’ babe! I don’t think I saw you in better form-“
“Archie! Shut up!”
ib., p. 119
“It’s a funny thing and a sad thing,” I observed, “the purer our motives are, the worse insults we get.”
ch. 10, p 123
"I said in an undertone, “We’re being stalked. Engage in earnest whispered conversation, mumble umble, diddie riggie…”
ib., p. 129
In the bathroom down the hall I surveyed the devastation in the mirror. My lovely smooth skin was a sight. “Occupational hazard,” I said bitterly. “To hell with it. I’m going to get a job as an executive.”
ch. 13, p 162
“I had no idea what he was going to do with the two minutes, but normal people aren’t supposed to understand what geniuses are up. to.”
ch. 14, p 183
“There are two kinds of detectives that work on homicides. One kind hastens to the scene of the murder. The other kind hastens away from it.”
ch. 17, p 212
“Nothing you say to him will hurt my feelings any. I intend to resign. He’s being crafty and mysterious again, an I’m fed up. with it. You know? People phoning in by the dozen, and I mustn’t listen because I can’t keep. my face straight. Phooey. What I am, I’m a helot. A damn flunky. How’s chances for a job on the force?”
"Shut up."
