Quotes from Raymond Chandler

Most critical writing is drivel and half of it is dishonest. It is a short cut to oblivion, anyway. Thinking in terms of ideas destroys the power to think in terms of emotions and sensations.

The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.

I'm in a wild mood tonight. I want to go dance in the foam. I hear the banshees calling.

It is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country.

It is not a fragrant world.

A good title is the title of a successful book.

The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.

An artist cannot deny art, nor would he want to. A lover cannot deny love.

The champ may have lost his stuff temporarily or permanently, he can't be sure. When he can no longer throw his high hard one, he throws his heart instead. He throws something. He just doesn't walk off the mound and weep.

At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.

Down these mean streets a man must go who is neither tarnished nor afraid

Some are able and humane men and some are low-grade individuals with the morals of a goat, the artistic integrity of a slot machine, and the manners of a floorwalker with delusions of grandeur.

Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.

As honest as you could expect a man to be in a world where it's out of style.

Show me a man or woman who cannot stand mysteries and I will show you a fool, a clever fool - perhaps - but a fool just the same.

A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.

Her hair was the gold of gold paintings and had been fussed with just enough but not too much.

You can have a hangover from other things than alcohol. I had one from women.

She jerked away from me like a startled fawn might, if I had a startled fawn and it jerked away from me.

I have made three rules of writing for myself that are absolutes: Never take advice. Never show or discuss work in progress. Never answer a critic.

The streets were dark with something more than night.

In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption.

Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but production.

Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic.