Quotes from book
The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye
Raymond Chandler

The Long Goodbye is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1953, his sixth novel featuring the private investigator Philip Marlowe. Some critics consider it inferior to The Big Sleep or Farewell, My Lovely, but others rank it as the best of his work. Chandler, in a letter to a friend, called the novel "my best book".The novel is notable for using hard-boiled detective fiction as a vehicle for social criticism and for including autobiographical elements from Chandler's life. In 1955, the novel received the Edgar Award for Best Novel. It was later adapted as a 1973 film of the same name, updated to 1970s Los Angeles and starring Elliott Gould.

Raymond Chandler photo

“When I got home I mixed a stiff one and stood by the open window in the living room and sipped it and listened to the groundswell of traffic on Laurel Canyon Boulevard and looked at the glare of the big angry city hanging over the shoulder of the hills through which the boulevard had been cut. Far off the banshee wail of police or fire sirens rose and fell, never for very long completely silent. Twenty four hours a day somebody is running, somebody else is trying to catch him. Out there in the night of a thousand crimes, people were dying, being maimed, cut by flying glass, crushed against steering wheels or under heavy tires. People were being beaten, robbed, strangled, raped, and murdered. People were hungry, sick; bored, desperate with loneliness or remorse or fear, angry, cruel, feverish, shaken by sobs. A city no worse than others, a city rich and vigorous and full of pride, a city lost and beaten and full of emptiness. It all depends on where you sit and what your own private score is. I didn't have one. I didn't care. I finished the drink and went to bed.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye (1954)

Raymond Chandler photo

“To say goodbye is to die a little.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Raymond Chandler photo

“Alcohol is like love," he said. "The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye (1954)

Raymond Chandler photo

“I'm killing time and it's dying hard.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Variant: Mostly I just kill time," he said, "and it dies hard.
Source: The Long Goodbye

Raymond Chandler photo

“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

Raymond Chandler photo

“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

Raymond Chandler photo

“The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful die young, but that they grow old and mean. It will not happen to me.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Raymond Chandler photo

“He was a guy who talked with commas, like a heavy novel. Over the phone anyway.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Raymond Chandler photo

“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

Raymond Chandler photo

“There was a sad fellow over on a bar stool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Raymond Chandler photo

“She opened her mouth like a firebucket and laughed. That terminated my interest in her. I couldn't hear the laugh but the hole in her face when she unzippered her teeth was all I needed.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye (1954)

Raymond Chandler photo

“You had to play the big scene,” he said coldly. “Stand on your rights, talk about the law. How ingenuous can a man get, Marlowe? A man like you who is supposed to know his way around. The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye (1954), chapter 8

Raymond Chandler photo

“I never saw any of them again — except the cops. No way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye (1954)

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