Raymond Chandler Quotes

I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.

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

If you're not tough it's hard to survive in this world; and if you're not kind then you don't deserve to survive.

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid...He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world

Most people go through life using up half their energy trying to protect a dignity they never had

There are two kinds of truth; The truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The fist of these is science and the second is art.

From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.

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

I'm killing time and it's dying hard.

The more you reason the less you create.

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

There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.

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

A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.

She was kind of girl who'd eat all your cashews and leave you with nothing but peanuts and filberts.

The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.

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

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

I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.

There is no bad whiskey. There are only some whiskeys that aren't as good as others.

To say goodbye is to die a little.

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 streets were dark with something more then night.

There was a sad fellow over on a bar stool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream.

Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.