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Thanks wintonian. Funnily enough I kept looking at two entries down in BRB, so I was close.
rrrobbo, 22d is "Swiss cheese plant" (monstera) without the a.

I now have a full grid, the two 9-letter words and the two pairs of words in each set. a) I cannot for the life of me see how to parse 10 across; and b) I cannot see how the two nine-letter words lead to the quotation. I thought the two pairs of words would be the source of the quotation, assuming I have the right play (apparently confirmed by 25 down). But this seems not to be the case. A little nudge would, as always, be more than welcome.

Newbie here! Hope I don't tread on anyone's toes... Full grid but still struggling with the quotation. I know the source but not well enough to zero in. Escuan - shortform for March, shorform for atheltic and shortform for champion the previous two surrounded by Roman two. Rivals is the definition for another clue. Result is a musician of South American origin. Hope this isn't too much information!

Escuan, you have the right source, but don't google the words in the perimeter you would be wasting your time - as I did for most of Sunday!!!. What have you done with the clues where a letter has been dropped?

The two extra words from across and down guide you to the right part of the material for the quote. The two nine letter words tell you what letters make up that quote (and the speaker).....but not in what order......it's a bit of a jaw dropping moment when the penny drops. Personally I did it by looking for W's!

Thanks Meursault. I actually did get 21 - not sure why I wrote that. So is 'r' commonly used for 'take' and is that a reference to 'heartache'? Also I don't get 18 still - why does 'nothings replaced before' mean swap O for A? I get the O, but not the A - A="before"?

Thanks for the insight also into the Ostmen. I was after the Swiss cheese plant to be honest, but it was very interesting all the same ha ha.

16 I'm still not quite there. 'Murrays Fearsome' refers to which answer? I feel like that's a stupid question but my brain is rather tired, sorry.

rrrRobbo, a for ante, before; r, I think is for receipt, though not explicit in my Chambers; Murray's (Scottish word for) fearsome appears in 9A. The word is a shortening, a the long version being a synonym for 'unusual'.

Smartie, the puzzle title comes into play in narrowing down the area of the quote. For some reason I searched lines of verse with 3 'W's and 4 'I's. The line in question only has 3 'I's, the other is used by the speaker.

Rrrobbo, Mersault, excuse me butting in. I haven't done this crossword, but isn't 'r' = 'take', just the r=recipe=take (from the Latin) that we see in Chambers and in crosswords occasionally?

I'm sure you're right, Malone. My guess at 'receipt' wan't too far from the mark...