- Lucy Valdon: My only controversial hobby is killer fog.
- Archie Goodwin: [taken aback] Fog kills?
- Lucy Valdon: 32 people in 1948 - small little coal town in Pennsylvania.
- Archie Goodwin: [sarcastically] What'd they do? Get lost in the fog and fall into the mine? Something like that?
- Lucy Valdon: There is no humor in it.
- Archie Goodwin: [Chastened] Um, oh, none really.
- Archie Goodwin: Miss Tenzer probably aroused in men the feelings necessary for the propagation of the species.
- Nero Wolfe: [addressing the suspects] To get rid of the baby, she enlisted the help of a friend - a man. Let's call him X.
- Manuel Upton: [sarcastically] Make it Z. X is overworked.
- Archie Goodwin: [on seeing Lucy's mansion] It was a modest little cottage with just enough room for the Russian army.
- Lucy Valdon: It is nonsense to suspect me.
- Nero Wolfe: Nothing is nonsense concerning the vagaries of human conduct.
- Lon Cohen: What do you owe me?
- Archie Goodwin: Dinner!
- Lon Cohen: [Giving him a look and with more intensity] What do you owe me?
- Archie Goodwin: An Exclusive!