Hammond Innes > Quotes

“You weren't there.”
― Hammond Innes , The Wreck Of The Mary Deare

“I like the sea, but it’s not a creature I want to take liberties with.”
― Hammond Innes, The Wreck of the Mary Deare

“His thighs and legs tapered away like a bull terrier's hind quarters so that they looked on the verge of buckling under the weight of that great barrel of a body.”
― Hammond Innes, The Wreck Of The Mary Deare

“Bill Lands turned away from the door and he came across to where I was sitting.”
― Hammond Innes

“What was there in gold? Little bricks of a particularly useless metal—no more. It had no intrinsic value, save that its rarity made it suitable for use as a means of exchange. Yet, though inanimate, it seemed to have a deadly personality of its own. It could draw men from the ends of the earth in search of it. It was like a magnet—and all it attracted was greed. The story of Midas had shown men its uselessness. Yet throughout history, ever since the yellow metal had first been discovered, men had killed each other in the scramble to obtain it. They had subjected thousands to the lingering death of phthisis to drag it from deep mine shafts, from places as far apart as Alaska and the Klondyke. And others had dedicated their lives to a hard gamble in useful products in order to procure it and store it back in underground vaults.”
― Hammond Innes, The Lonely Skier

“The studios seem to think people go to the cinema to listen. They don’t. They go to watch.”
― Hammond Innes, The Lonely Skier

“Del Ricci is, he’s prepared to act as Santa Claus an’ get the bleedin’ ship back for us.” His small leathery face was puckered with bewilderment as he shook his head and said, “Stands ter reason a bloke’d want payment for a thing like that, especially in this God-forsaken country. But there ain’t no point in our worrying about it like, is there? I mean, we ain’t got nothink to lose.” He was right there. The only thing I’d got to lose was my life—or my liberty if we were arrested for attempting to seize by force something that really belonged to us. I had no illusions about what was going to happen. The Little Octopus wasn’t taking an interest in us out of kindness. This was gang warfare and the party wasn’t likely to be a picnic. We were at the Castello Nuovo shortly before midnight. It was almost cool with a slight breeze coming in from the sea. The great square bulk of the castle crouched black against the moonlit waters of Naples Bay, and beyond it the dim outline of Vesuvius was raised towards the sky. I glanced down at Monique,”
― Hammond Innes, Dead and Alive