Quotes from Dashiell Hammett

I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon.

I once knew a man who stole a Ferris Wheel...

Brigid O'Shaughnessy: "I haven't lived a good life. I've been bad, worse than you could know." Sam Spade "You know, that's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd never get anywhere

To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted.

Nick: "Don't you think maybe a drink would help you to sleep?" Nora: "No, thanks." Nick: "Maybe it would if I took one.

Talking is something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice.

I found I was repeating myself. It is the beginning of the end when you discover you have style.

Listen, Dundy, it's been a long time since I burst into tears because a policeman didn't like me.

Our lawyers had their chat with the Supreme Court Justice, and promised to repast the chat to other members of the Supreme Court to find out whether they wanted to hear us out.

Who shot him? I asked. The grey man scratched the back of his neck and said: Somebody with a gun.

My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.

He was the perfect soldier: he went where you sent him, and stayed where you put him, and had no idea of his own to keep him from doing exactly what you told him.

Brigid: I haven't lived a good life - I've been bad, worse than you could know. Spade: That's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd never get anywhere.

...What disturbed him was the discovery that in sensibly ordering his affairs he had got out of step, and not into step, with Life.

He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him see the works.

Feed the lettuce to the bunny and eat the bunny.

With what dope I got I think it fills me in pretty well.

Another man whose social life has ruined him.

Thanks for the information about what we call business.

It's sometimes better to pretend I don't hear the sound of somebody in the nearby woods with a shotgun.

Listen, Dundy, it's been a long time since I burst into tears because a policeman didn't like me.

She seems to be having a pretty good time despite her worrying. That's Lily.

The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.

It's awfully easy to be in love in jail