Raymond Chandler Quotes - Page 8

Quotes about:

• The average detective story is probably no worse than the average novel, but you never see the average novel. It doesn't get published. The average -- or only slightly above average -- detective story does.... Whereas the good novel is not at all the same kind of book as the bad novel. It is about entirely different things. But the good detective story and the bad detective story are about exactly the same things, and they are about them in very much the same way.

  Raymond Chandler

  Book, Average, Doe

  7 Copy quote

• The perfect detective story cannot be written. The type of mind which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can produce the artistic job of writing.

  Raymond Chandler

  Jobs, Writing, Perfect

  Raymond Chandler (2014). “The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words”, p.244, Vintage

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• Great critics, of whom there are piteously few, build a home for the truth.

  Raymond Chandler

  Home, Critics

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.78, Univ of California Press

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• I like bars just after they open in the evening. When the air inside is still cool and clean and everything is shiny. The first quiet drink of the evening in a quiet bar -- that's wonderful.

  Raymond Chandler

  Air, Bars, Firsts

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Long Goodbye: A Novel”, p.24, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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• May I wish for you the knowledge...that marriages do not take place, they are made by hand; that there is always an element of discipline involved; that however perfect the honeymoon, the time will come, however brief it is, when you wish she would fall downstairs and break a leg. This goes for her too. But the mood will pass, if you give it time.

  Raymond Chandler

  Fall, Break A Leg, Hands

  7 Copy quote

• Not only is the motion picture an art, but it is the one entirely new art that has been evolved on this planet for hundreds of years. It is the only art at which we of this generation have any possible chance to greatly excel.

  Raymond Chandler

  Art, Years, This Generation

  Raymond Chandler, Tom Hiney, Frank MacShane (2002). “The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction, 1909-1959”, p.72, Grove Press

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• The making of a picture ought surely to be a rather fascinating adventure. It is not; it is an endless contention of tawdry egos, some of them powerful, almost all of them vociferous, and almost none of them capable of anything much more creative than credit-stealing and self-promotion.

  Raymond Chandler

  Powerful, Adventure, Self

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.117, Univ of California Press

  7 Copy quote

• All men who read escape from something else into what lies behind the printed page; the quality of the dream may be argued, but its release has become a functional necessity.

  Raymond Chandler

  Dream, Lying, Men

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Simple Art of Murder”, p.16, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  4 Copy quote

• A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else.

  Raymond Chandler

  Real, Rose, Juice

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Long Goodbye: A Novel”, p.20, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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• There's always something to do if you don't have to work or consider the cost. It's no real fun but the rich don't know that. They never had any. They never want anything very hard except maybe somebody else's wife and that's a pretty pale desire compared with the way a plumber's wife wants new curtains for the living room.

  Raymond Chandler

  Fun, Real, Wife

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Long Goodbye: A Novel”, p.21, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  4 Copy quote

• The kind of lawyer you hope the other fellow has.

  Raymond Chandler

  Law, Lawyer, Kind

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Long Goodbye: A Novel”, p.118, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  4 Copy quote

• Americans will eat anything if it is toasted and held together with a couple of toothpicks and has lettuce sticking out of the sides, preferably a little wilted.

  Raymond Chandler

  Couple, Together, Littles

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Long Goodbye: A Novel”, p.303, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  4 Copy quote

• All language begins with speech, and the speech of common men at that, but when it develops to the point of becoming a literary medium it only looks like speech.

  Raymond Chandler

  Men, Looks, Speech

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Simple Art of Murder”, p.20, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  4 Copy quote

• When the plot flags, bring in a man with a gun.

  Raymond Chandler

  Gun, Men, Plot

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• It was a smooth silvery voice that matched her hair. It had a tiny tinkle in it, like bells in a doll's house. I thought that was silly as soon as I thought of it.

  Raymond Chandler

  Silly, Hair, Voice

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.222, Modern Library

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• I belonged in Idle Valley like a pearl onion on a banana split.

  Raymond Chandler

  Onions, Splits, Pearls

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Long Goodbye: A Novel”, p.92, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  6 Copy quote

• The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.

  Raymond Chandler

  Real, Perfect, Trying

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.134, Univ of California Press

  7 Copy quote

• The English may not always be the best writers in the world, but they are incomparably the best dull writers.

  Raymond Chandler

  World, Dull, May

  1944 'The Simple Art of Murder'. In Atlantic Monthly, Dec.

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• Tall, aren't you? I didn't mean to be.

  Raymond Chandler

  Mean, Tall

  4 Copy quote

• The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half-piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.

  Raymond Chandler

  Real, Clothes, Perfect

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.134, Univ of California Press

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• If people could deal with each other honestly, they would not need agents.

  Raymond Chandler

  People, Needs, Agents

  1952 'Ten Per Cent of Your Life', in Atlantic Monthly, Feb.

  4 Copy quote

• Show me a man or woman who cannot stand mysteries and I will show you a fool, a clever fool - perhaps - but a fool just the same.

  Raymond Chandler

  Clever, Men, Fool

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.70, Univ of California Press

  14 Copy quote

• They write them long because they can't write them short.

  Raymond Chandler

  Book, Writing, Long

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• But nothing seems to do any good.

  Raymond Chandler

  Seems

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.320, Modern Library

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  House, Feelings, Aprons

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The High Window: A Novel”, p.309, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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