James M. Cain

If you have to do it, you can do it.

— James M. Cain

A guitar has moonlight in it.

— James M. Cain

“let's get stinko.”

— James M. Cain

Time is the only critic.

— James M. Cain

“A woman is a funny animal.”

— James M. Cain

I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake

— James M. Cain

I write of the wish that comes true--for some reason, a terrifying thought.

— James M. Cain

They threw me off the haytruck about noon.

— James M. Cain

A gun is like breath to a drowning man--it has to be drawn in haste.

— James M. Cain

New York is not even a city, it's a congerie of rotten villages.

— James M. Cain

That's all it takes, one drop of fear to curdle love into hate.

— James M. Cain

The hand that holds the money cracks the whip.

— James M. Cain

Love, when you get fear in it, it's not love any more. It's hate.

— James M. Cain

I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.

— James M. Cain

You have to wait for your mind to catch up with whatever it is it’s working on; then you can write a…

— James M. Cain

I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called.

— James M. Cain

If you can't write like New York, you have no business living in New York and making New York the locale of…

— James M. Cain

“I kissed her. Her eyes were shining up at me like two blue stars. It was like being in church.”

— James M. Cain

Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It's not all inspirational.

— James M. Cain

You usually can tell when a writer is going down hill by the size of his liquor bill.

— James M. Cain

She was a little given to rehearsing things in her mind, and having imaginary triumphs over people who had upset her in…

— James M. Cain

A home is not a museum. It doesn't have to be furnished with Picasso paintings, or Sheraton suites, or Oriental rugs, or…

— James M. Cain

Yes, I have actually mined coal, and distilled liquor, as well as seen a girl in a pink dress, and seen her…

— James M. Cain

“By nine, Mildred was powdered, puffed, perfumed, and patted to that state of semi-transparency that a woman seems to achieve when she…

— James M. Cain

“...if he can write a book at all, a writer cannot do it by peeping over his shoulder at somebody else, any…

— James M. Cain

“Up close, she could see the sharp, cold, look that she constantly shot at Mr. Treviso, particularly when there was a break,…

— James M. Cain

“There was something unnatural, a little unhealthy, about the way she inhaled Veda's smell as she dedicated the rest of her life…

— James M. Cain

“I ripped all her clothes off. She twisted and turned, slow, so they would slip out from under her. Then she closed…

— James M. Cain

“Mildred sat quite still, and when she heard Veda drive off she was consumed by a fury so cold that it almost…

— James M. Cain

O.K." "Gee I'm glad." "Me too. I'm so sick of hot dogs and beer and apple pie with cheese on the side…

— James M. Cain

“Then she got up, went to Monty's mirror, and began combing her hair, while little cadenzas absentmindedly cascaded out of her throat,…

— James M. Cain

“With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything…

— James M. Cain

I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called. I…

— James M. Cain

A lot of novelists start late-Conrad, Pirandello, even Mark Twain. When you're young, chess is all right, and music and poetry. But…

— James M. Cain

When it’s too good, you do it over again. Too good is too easy. If it’s too easy you have to worry.…

— James M. Cain

“She looked like the great grandmother of every whore in the world. The devil got his money's worth that night.”

— James M. Cain

Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing, but stealing his car, that's larceny.

— James M. Cain

I write of the wish that comes true - for some reason, a terrifying concept.

— James M. Cain

If your writing doesn't keep you up at night, it won't keep anyone else up either".

— James M. Cain

“I mobili erano spagnoli, del genere bellini a vedersi e scomodi a sedersi.”

— James M. Cain