Raymond Chandler Quotes

Quotes about:

• If you're not tough it's hard to survive in this world; and if you're not kind then you don't deserve to survive.

  Raymond Chandler

  Community, Society, World

  20 Copy quote

• Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid...He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world

  Raymond Chandler

  Hero, Mean, Men

  Raymond Chandler (2014). “The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words”, p.69, Vintage

  82 Copy quote

• I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.

  Raymond Chandler

  Beer, Guy, Wake Up

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Simple Art of Murder”, p.115, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  57 Copy quote

• There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself.

  Raymond Chandler

  Traps

  The Long Goodbye ch. 12 (1953)

  36 Copy quote

• From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.

  Raymond Chandler

  Funny, Women, Class

  "The High Window". Book by Raymond Chandler, 1942.

  30 Copy quote

• There are two kinds of truth; The truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The fist of these is science and the second is art.

  Raymond Chandler

  Art, Science, Light

  Raymond Chandler (1976). “The notebooks of Raymond Chandler and English summer: a gothic romance”, Ecco

  67 Copy quote

• He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.

  Raymond Chandler

  Food, Angel, Cooking

  1940 Of Moose Malloy. Farewell, My Lovely, ch.1.

  83 Copy quote

• I'm killing time and it's dying hard.

  Raymond Chandler

  Dying, Killing, Time To Kill

  7 Copy quote

• Most people go through life using up half their energy trying to protect a dignity they never had

  Raymond Chandler

  People, Trying, Half

  Raymond Chandler (2014). “The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words”, p.283, Vintage

  25 Copy quote

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

  Raymond Chandler

  Nice, Habit, Big Sleep

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.43, Modern Library

  62 Copy quote

• I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.

  Raymond Chandler

  Country, Home, Gun

  Raymond Chandler (2014). “The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words”, p.100, Vintage

  22 Copy quote

• It is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country

  Raymond Chandler

  Country, Mind, Way

  1951 Letter to Carl Barndt, 15 Nov.

  21 Copy quote

• A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.

  Raymond Chandler

  Writing, Stories, Storytelling

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.75, Univ of California Press

  48 Copy quote

• There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.

  Raymond Chandler

  Art, War, Science

  "Great Thought". "The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler" (1976) by Raymond Chandler, February 19, 1938.

  34 Copy quote

• The more you reason the less you create.

  Raymond Chandler

  Success, Creativity, Ideas

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.77, Univ of California Press

  10 Copy quote

• She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight.

  Raymond Chandler

  Taj Mahal, Looks, Way

  Raymond Chandler (1995). “Later Novels & Other Writings”

  28 Copy quote

• It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.

  Raymond Chandler

  Beauty, Glasses, Blonde

  Farewell, My Lovely ch. 13 (1940)

  74 Copy quote

• I have made three rules of writing for myself that are absolutes: Never take advice. Never show or discuss work in progress. Never answer a critic.

  Raymond Chandler

  Writing, Advice, Progress

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.93, Univ of California Press

  8 Copy quote

• The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow, I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.

  Raymond Chandler

  Writing, Mean, Pushing

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.216, Univ of California Press

  14 Copy quote

• She was kind of girl who'd eat all your cashews and leave you with nothing but peanuts and filberts.

  Raymond Chandler

  Girl, Sarcastic, Kind

  15 Copy quote

• Don't ever write anything you don't like yourself and if you do like it, don't take anyone's advice about changing it. They just don't know.

  Raymond Chandler

  Writing, Advice, Like Yourself

  Raymond Chandler (1987). “Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler”, Delta

  9 Copy quote

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

  Raymond Chandler

  Girl, Looks, Four

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Long Goodbye: A Novel”, p.6, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  44 Copy quote

• The best way to find out if you have any friends is to go broke. The ones that hang on longest are your friends. I don't mean the ones that hang on forever. There aren't any of those.

  Raymond Chandler

  Mean, Forever, Way

  Raymond Chandler, Tom Hiney, Frank MacShane (2002). “The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction, 1909-1959”, p.111, Grove Press

  10 Copy quote

• I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin.

  Raymond Chandler

  Girl, Sin, Smooth

  Raymond Chandler (1994). “Farewell, my lovely”, Thorndike Pr

  9 Copy quote

• If you believe in an idea, you don't own you, it owns you.

  Raymond Chandler

  Believe, Passion, Ideas

  5 Copy quote

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