Good ideas Quote by Raymond Chandler
““Got any good ideas, soldier?” “Lots of them. Somebody gunned Geiger. Somebody got gunned by Geiger, who ran away. Or it was two other fellows. Or Geiger was running a cult and made blood sacrifices in front of that totem pole. Or he had chicken for dinner and liked to kill his chickens in the front parlor.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: The Big Sleep, 1939
A character asks for ideas, leading to a chaotic, violent tale.
In simple terms: Ideas can spiral into chaos.
Key Takeaway
Beware of reckless brainstorming.
Themes
crime
chaos
dialogue
Mood
darkly humorous
ironic
Type
literary
satirical
When to use this quote
- creative writing
- crime fiction analysis
- character study
Key Concepts
violent imagination
storytelling
unreliable narrator
Questions to Reflect On
- What does this say about the narrator’s worldview?
- How does humor mask danger?
A Different Perspective
The quote mixes humor with dark violence, limiting seriousness.
![“Hammett was the ace performer... He is said to have lacked heart; yet the story he himself thought the most of [The Glass Key] is the record of a man's devotion to a friend. He was spare, frugal, hard-boiled, but he did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote…” quote by Raymond Chandler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/882/raymond-chandler-629_dashiel-hammett_hammett-was-the-ace-performer-he-is-said_20171.jpg)
![“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 a board fence and nobody looking.” quote by Raymond Chandler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/614/raymond-chandler-629_writing_he-james-cain-is-every-kind-of-writer-i_41185.jpg)
