Chandler Quotes

“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.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“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 and drain your mind of all thought. And there you are watching the bubbles in the primeval ooze. You don't have to concentrate. You don't have to react. You don't have to remember. You don't miss your brain because you don't need it. Your heart and liver and lungs continue to function normally. Apart from that, all is peace and quiet. You are in the man's nirvana. And if some poor nasty minded person comes along and says you look like a fly on a can of garbage, pay him no mind. He probably hasn't got the price of a television set.”
― Raymond Chandler

“I certainly admire people who do things.”
― Raymond Chandler

“She poured us some more Scotch. It didn't seem to affect her any more than water affects Boulder Dam.”
― Raymond Chandler

“I'm afraid it isn't good news. The Council seems to have gone quite mad.”
― Jim Butcher, Changes

“Take note, Anderson. Size and martial ability do not need to come with a correlating decrease in intelligence.”
― Kelley Armstrong, Omens

“Then I sat there holding the neck of the cool bottle and wondering how it would feel to be a homicide dick and find bodies lying around and not mind at all, not have to sneak out wiping doorknobs, not have to ponder how much I could tell without hurting a client and how little I could tell without too badly hurting myself. I decided I wouldn’t like it.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“He held my gun in his delicate, lovely hand. He held it pointed at my chest.

'I could teach you,' he said in his soft voice. 'But to what purpose? A dirty little man in a dirty little world. One spot of brightness on you and you would still be that. Is it not so?' He smiled, so beautifully.

I swung at his smile with everything I had left.”
― Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely

“After six long hours of driving and three rest stops, Tiger pulls up to a snow-topped, metal speaker box just outside the State Penitentiary's first gate in Walla Walla. As he rolls down his window and snow flies in his face, Joshua starts begging for a Happy Meal.
I turn around, snapping at him. "This ISN'T MCDONALDS and YOU AREN'T HUNGRY. NOW SHUT UP BRAT."
A loud scratchy masculine voice blasts out of the speaker. "CAN I HELP YOU?"
Tiger leans out the window, as he answers- We're here to visit Raven Chandler.
"HAVE YOU BEEN HERE BEFORE?"
"Yes sir. I've been here A LOT."
"WHERE'S HIS MOTHER?"
"I don't know.. I haven't seen her in months."
"NOT THE PRISONER'S MOTHER. THE BRAT IN THE BACK SEAT OF YOUR JEEP."
"Oh- HIM-" As he turns, smiling and sticking his tongue out at Joshua, I lean towards his window to answer the guard's question.
"SHE'S IN VEGAS, SIR. I'M BABYSITTING. HE'S MY GODSON." When the speaker remains disturbingly silent for far too long, I continue. "HE'S A GOOD BOY SIR. HE WON'T BE ANY TROUBLE- I SWEAR."
"THAT'S RIGHT," Tiger said. "HE SWEARS ON THE LITTLE BRAT'S MOTHER'S GRAVE.”
― Giorge Leedy, Uninhibited From Lust To Love

“Gin," dissi io. "Capito tutto. La gente per bene non beve gin."
"La gente per bene non beve niente," precisò la vecchia.”
― Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely

“If he is a man on honor in one thing, he is that in all things.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Simple Art of Murder

“Marlowe,” he said, even more earnestly, “I’ll try hard, but I don’t think I am going to like you.”

“I’m screaming,” I said. “With rage and pain.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“He looked at the corner of the ceiling with an absent stare. I looked at him with a not so absent stare. He looked like a man who could be trusted with a secret—if it was his own secret.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“Out of the apartment houses come women who should be young but have faces like stale beer; men with pulled-down hats and quick eyes that look the street over behind the cupped hand that shields the match flame; worn intellectuals with cigarette coughs and no money in the bank; fly cops
with granite faces and unwavering eyes; cokies and coke peddlers; people who look like nothing in particular and know it, and once in a while even men that actually go to work. But they come out early, when the wide cracked sidewalks are empty and still have dew on them.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“Out of the apartment houses come women who should be young but have faces like stale beer; men with pulled-down hats and quick eyes that look the street over behind the cupped hand that shields the match flame; worn intellectuals with cigarette coughs and no money in the bank; fly cops with granite faces and unwavering eyes; cokies and coke peddlers; people who look like nothing in particular and know it, and once in a while even men that actually go to work. But they come out early, when the wide cracked sidewalks are empty and still have dew on them.”
― Raymond Chandler

“We looked at each other with the clear innocent eyes of a couple of used car salesmen.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“He says you make good coffee and you get up kind of late in the mornings and are apt to run to a very bright line of chatter and that we should believe anything you say, provided we can check it by five independent witnesses.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“A thousand white houses built up and down the hills, ten thousand lighted windows and the stars hanging down over them politely, not getting too close, on account of the patrol.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“Class is a thing that has a way of dissolving rapidly in alcohol.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“I filled and lit my pipe and sat there smoking. Nobody came in, nobody called, nothing happened, nobody cared whether I died or went to El Paso.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“She made a humph noise and played another card. She got the ace of diamonds up to the top line. “The ace of clubs is buried, darn it. I’m not going to get it out in time.”

“Kind of slide it out,” I said, “when you’re not looking,”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“Oh hell and fireflies,” I said and went out to the kitchen and gobbled a quick drink, before we started. It didn’t do me any good. It just made me want to climb up the wall and gnaw my way across the ceiling.”
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window

“He held my gun in his delicate, lovely hand. He held it pointed at my chest.
'I could teach you,' he said in his soft voice. 'But to what purpose? A dirty little man in a dirty little world. One spot of brightness on you and you would still be that. Is it not so?' He smiled, so beautifully.
I swung at his smile with everything I had left.”
― Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely