Raymond Chandler

“The streets were dark with something more than night.”

“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.”

“To say goodbye is to die a little.”

“There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself.”

“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.”

“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”

“He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.”

“The law isn't justice. It's a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer.”

“Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.”

“When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.”

“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.”

“I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private eye ought to be.”

“It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.”

“She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.”

“Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.”

“If I wasn't hard, I wouldn't be alive. If I couldn't be gentle, I wouldn't deserve to be alive.”

“Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off.”

“The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right.”

“I'm a romantic; a sentimental person thinks things will last, a romantic person has a desperate confidence that they won't.”