“The dilemma of the critic has always been that if he knows enough to speak with authority, he knows too much to speak with detachment." ( A Qualified Farewell )” — Raymond Chandler Copy Share Image
“The solution, once revealed, must seem to have been inevitable. At least half of all the mystery novels published violate this law." ( Casual Notes on the Mystery Novel , 1949)” — Raymond Chandler Copy Share Image
Television's perfect. You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
Common sense is the guy who tells you that you ought to have had your brakes relined last week before you smashed a front… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
“Hammett was the ace performer... He is said to have lacked heart; yet the story he himself thought the most of [The Glass Key]… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
She jerked away from me like a startled fawn might, if I had a startled fawn and it jerked away from me. — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
Dashiell Hammett took murder out of theVenetian vase and dropped it into the alley. — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
“He [James Cain] is every kind of writer I detest...a Proust in greasy overalls, a dirty little boy with a piece of chalk and… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window. — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
“I had been stalking the bluebottle fly for five minutes, waiting for him to sit down. He didn't want to sit down. He just… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
“A three-piece Mexican band was making the kind of music a Mexican band always makes. Whatever they play, it all sounds the same. They… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
“The book was not new. Dates were stamped on the front endpaper, in and out dates. A rent book. A lending library of elaborate… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
“The homicide skipper that year was a Captain Gregorius, a type of copper that is getting rarer but by no means extinct, the kind… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share
