Quotes from Raymond Chandler

But you found a couple of dead men that I have nothing to do with and you have neatly arranged matters so that I must tell the police all my private and personal business in order to protect you from your own incompetence. That's what I see. If I am wrong, pray correct me.

The elevator had a carpeted floor and mirrors and indirect lighting. It rose as softly as the mercury in a thermometer.

A rua estava escura de qualquer coisa mais que a noite.

You're the second guy I've met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.

The eighty-five cent dinner tasted like a discarded mailbag and was served to me by a waiter who looked as if he would slug me for a quarter, cut my throat for six bits, and bury me at sea in a barrel of concrete for a dollar and a half, plus sales tax.

I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things.

It takes a little time to get a visa to Mexico. They don't let just anybody in.

he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.

It's not his step, it's the back of his lap he ought to watch, I said.

At twenty-nine a dish like this would almost certainly have been married.

Gin, dissi io. Capito tutto. La gente per bene non beve gin. La gente per bene non beve niente, precisò la vecchia.

He would be like that for the rest of his life and that is what his life was. You would never know how he got that way because even if he told you it would not be the truth. At the very best a distorted memory of the truth as he knew it. There is a sad man like that in every quiet bar in the world.

Tijuana is not Mexico. No border town is anything but a border town, just as no waterfront is anything but a waterfront. San Diego? One of the most beautiful harbors in the world and nothing in it but navy and a few fishing boats.

The air was thick, wet, steamy and larded with the cloying smell of tropical orchids in bloom.

No estoy dispuesto a hablar, Eddie. ¿Por qué iba a hacerlo? Dejó la pistola sobre el escritorio y la golpeó con la mano abierta. - Esto -dijo-. Y yo podría hacer que le resultara provechoso. - Ya, eso suena mejor. No meta la pistola en este asunto. Yo siempre estoy dispuesto a escuchar el sonido del dinero.

her face fell apart like a bride's pie crust.

Tiré el diario a un rincón y encendí la TV. Después de la nauseabunda página de sociales, hasta los luchadores que aparecían en la pantalla parecían buenos. Lo cual probablemente era cierto. Sobre todo por la página de sociales.

It was one of the mixed blocks over on Central Avenue, the blocks that are not yet all Negro. I had just come out of a three-chair barber shop where an agency thought a relief barber named Dimitrios Aleidis might be working. It was a small matter. His wife said she was willing to spend a little money to have him come home.

I went back to my car again and sat and sat. The top dripped on my knees and my stomach burned from the whiskey. No more cars came up the hill. No lights went on in the house before which I was parked. It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.

Dont get fancy, buster. I might loosen your jaw for you. Ha, ha, I said. You might play centre field for the Yankees and hit a home run with a breadstick.

I sat very still and listened to the evening grow quiet outside the open windows. And very slowly I grew quiet with it.

I went to the door and looked out. The cool night breeze was blowing peacefully down the hall. No excited neighbors hung out of doorways. A small gun had gone off and broken a pane of glass, but noises like that don't mean much any more.

It was raining again the next morning, a slanting grey rain like a swung curtain of crystal beads.

El alcohol es como el amor —expresó—. El primer beso es magia; el segundo, intimidad; el tercero, rutina. Después de eso lo que hacemos es descestir a la muchacha.