Raymond Chandler: Trending quotes (page 2)

“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can't predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Alcohol , Drink

“A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.”

Raymond Chandler book Farewell, My Lovely

Source: Farewell, My Lovely (1940), chapter 13

“It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.”

Raymond Chandler book The Big Sleep

Source: The Big Sleep (1939), Chapter 6
Context: The registration read: Carmen Sternwood, 3765 Alta Brea Crescent, West Hollywood. I went back to my car again and sat and sat. The top dripped on my knees and my stomach burned from the whiskey. No more cars came up the hill. No lights went on in the house before which I was parked. It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.

“Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.”

Raymond Chandler

“The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Girl

“You talk too damn much and too damn much of it is about you.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

“The streets were dark with something more then night.”

Raymond Chandler

Night

“As honest as you can expect a man to be in a world where its going out of style.”

Raymond Chandler book The Big Sleep

Source: The Big Sleep

World

“The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right. To say goodbye is to die a little.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

“He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake.”

Raymond Chandler

Food , Angels

“She lowered her lashes until they almost cuddled her cheeks and slowly raised them again, like a theatre curtain. I was to get to know that trick. That was supposed to make me roll over on my back with all four paws in the air.”

Raymond Chandler book The Big Sleep

Source: The Big Sleep

“In writing a novel, when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.”

Raymond Chandler

Variant: When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.

Guy

“I was neat, clean, shaved and sober and I didn't care who knew it.”

Raymond Chandler book The Big Sleep

opening paragraph, chapter 1
The Big Sleep (1939)
Context: It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark little clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.