Philip Marlowe Quotes

“I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. They’re pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

“I didn't mind what she called me, what anybody called me. But this was the room I had to live in. It was all I had in the way of a home. In it was everything that was mine, that had any association for me, any past, anything that took the place of a family. Not much: a few books, pictures, radio, chessmen, old letters, stuff like that. Nothing. Such as they were, they had all my memories.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

“Marlowe's the name. The guy you've been trying to follow around for a couple of days."

"I ain't following anybody, doc."

"This jalopy is. Maybe you can't control it. Have it your own way. I'm now going to eat breakfast in the coffee shop across the street: orange juice, bacon and eggs, toast, honey, three or four cups of coffee, and a toothpick. I am then going up to my office, which is on the seventh floor of the building right opposite you. If you have anything that's worrying you beyond endurance, drop up and chew it over. I'll only be oiling my machine gun.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

“I was as empty of life as a scarecrow's pockets.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

“If I had a razor, I'd cut your throat - just to see what ran out of it."

"Caterpillar blood," I said.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

“I bet it was also the triumphant Aha! and not the truth itself that had fueled all those famous literary detectives I knew not much about except their names - Philip Marlowe, Sherlock Holmes, Joe and Frank Hardy. I felt like yelling something celebratory on my way home, something like, Yeah! or Fuck, yeah! just like Marlowe would have yelled, just like the Hardys would have yelled, and maybe Holmes, too, although maybe that's why he kept Watson around; to tell Holmes to simmer down and not get too far ahead of himself.”
― Brock Clarke, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England

“The kid poured him another straight rye and I think he doctored it with water down behind the bar because when he came up with it he looked as guilty as if he'd kicked his grandmother.”
― Raymond Chandler

“But sometimes when you are getting nowhere, you have to give the wasps' nest a wallop”
― Benjamin Black

“I can just about promise you Philip Marlowe was never as dainty as I.”
― Sue Grafton, X

“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

“Sono romantico, Bernie. Odo voci gridare nella notte e vado a vedere che cosa succede. In questo modo non si guadagna un centesimo. Voi invece avete buon senso; chiudete le finestre e aumentate il volume del televisore. Oppure, se state guidando, premete l'acceleratore e vi allontanate il più rapidamente possibile. State alla larga dai guai altrui. Il meglio che possa capitare è uno smacco. L'ultima volta che vidi Terry Lennox bevemmo insieme una tazza di caffè che preparai io stesso in questa casa e fumammo una sigaretta. E così, quando seppi che era morto, andai in cucina, e preparai il caffè e riempii una tazza per lui e accesi per lui una sigaretta, e quando il caffè si fu raffreddato e la sigaretta fu consumata, gli augurai la buonanotte. In questo modo non si guadagna un centesimo. Voi non lo fareste. Ecco perché siete un abile poliziotto e io sono un investigatore privato.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

“Sono un egocentrico farabutto, una prostituta letteraria o un manutengolo delle lettere, scegliete voi la definizione che più vi piace, sono marcio dalla punta dei piedi alla cima dei capelli. E dunque cosa potete fare per me?"
"Che cosa dovrei fare?"
"Perché non andate in bestia?"
"Non ho alcun motivo di andare in bestia. Sto solo ascoltandovi mentre odiate voi stesso. È noioso, ma non ferisce la mia suscettibilità.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye