Raymond Chandler Quotes - Page 8

The making of a picture ought surely to be a rather fascinating adventure. It is not; it is an endless contention of tawdry egos, some of them powerful, almost all of them vociferous, and almost none of them capable of anything much more creative than credit-stealing and self-promotion.

There's always something to do if you don't have to work or consider the cost. It's no real fun but the rich don't know that. They never had any. They never want anything very hard except maybe somebody else's wife and that's a pretty pale desire compared with the way a plumber's wife wants new curtains for the living room.

The kind of lawyer you hope the other fellow has.

One would think a writer would be happy here — if a writer is ever happy anywhere.

LA doesn't have the heart of a paper cup.

Americans will eat anything if it is toasted and held together with a couple of toothpicks and has lettuce sticking out of the sides, preferably a little wilted.

All language begins with speech, and the speech of common men at that, but when it develops to the point of becoming a literary medium it only looks like speech.

When the plot flags, bring in a man with a gun.

Nice: meaning I'm going to be dating leather-wearing alcoholics and complaining about them - to you.

I suppose all writers are crazy, but if they are any good, I believe they have a terrible honesty.

I belonged in Idle Valley like a pearl onion on a banana split.

It was a smooth silvery voice that matched her hair. It had a tiny tinkle in it, like bells in a doll's house. I thought that was silly as soon as I thought of it.

The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half-piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.

The English may not always be the best writers in the world, but they are incomparably the best dull writers.

The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.

Tall, aren't you? I didn't mean to be.

If people could deal with each other honestly, they would not need agents.

Shake your business up and pour it. I haven't got all day.

They write them long because they can't write them short.

But nothing seems to do any good.

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.

I had a funny feeling as I saw the house disappear, as though I had written a poem and it was very good and I had lost it and would never remember it again.

I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. I put it back where I had moved it from. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights.

Organized crime is the dirty side of the sharp dollar.

However toplofty and idealistic a man may be, he can always rationalize his right to earn money.