Quotes from Dashiell Hammett

I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.

The truth is you don't like the theater except the times when you're in a room by yourself putting the play on paper.

Nora said: 'I love you, Nicky, because you smell nice and know such fascinating people.

I deserve all the love you can spare me. And I want a lot more than I deserve.

The outcome of successful planning always looks like luck to saps.

When you write, you want fame, fortune and personal satisfaction. You want to write what you want to write and feel it's good, and you want this to go on for hundreds of years. You're not likely ever to get all these things, and you're not likely to give up writing and commit suicide if you don't, but that is -- and should be -- your goal. Anything else is kind of piddling.

This damned burg's getting me. If I don't get away soon I'll be going blood-simple like the natives.

I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble.

He said: I'm going to send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means you'll be out again in twenty years. You're an angel. I'll wait for you. He cleared his throat. If they hang you I'll always remember you.

How about a drop of something to cut the phlegm? Why don't you stay sober today? We didn't come to New York to stay sober.

She stared at him dully and said: "I don't like crooks, and even if I did, I wouldn't like crooks that are stool-pigeons, and if I liked crooks that are stool-pigeons, I still wouldn't like you." She turned to the outer door.

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

The boy spoke two words, the first a short guttural verb, the second "you.

I'll give you your Christmas present now if you'll give me mine. I shook my head. At breakfast. But it's Christmas now. Breakfast. Whatever you're giving me, she said, I hope I don't like it. You'll have to keep them anyway, because the man at the Aquarium said he positively wouldn't take them back. He said they'd already bitten the tails off the...

Listen, darling, tomorrow I'll buy you a whole lot of detective stories, but don't worry your pretty little head over mysteries tonight.

So that's the way you scientific detectives work. My god! for a fat, middle-aged, hard-boiled, pig-headed guy, you've got the vaguest way of doing things I ever heard of.

That's wonderful. I do like a man that tells you right out he's looking out for himself. Don't we all? I don't trust a man that says he's not. And the man that's telling the truth when he says he's not I distrust most of all, because he's and ass and an ass that's going contrary to the laws of nature.

I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.

It's probably polite to pretend you don't see people coming out of pawnshops, anyhow.

He opened the door wider. He's waiting. He gave me what was probably meant to be a significant wink, but a corner of his mouth moved more than his eye did and the result was a fairly startling face.

How do you feel? Terrible. I must've gone to bed sober.

You like Nick a lot, don't you, Nora? Dorothy asked. He's an old Greek fool, but I'm used to him. Charles isn't a Greek name. It's Charalambides, I explained. When the old man came over, the mugg that put him through Ellis Island said Charalambides was too long...too much trouble to write... and whittled it down to Charles. It was all right with the old man; they could have called him X so they let him in.

I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20 years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you. (Sam Spade to Brigid O'Shaughnessy)

We found a table. Nora said: She's pretty. If you like them like that. She grinned at me. You got types? Only you, darling - lanky brunettes with wicked jaws. And how about the red-head you wandered off with at Quinns' last night? That's silly, I said. She just wanted to show me some French etchings.