Dashiell Hammett Quotes
The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.
Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready. Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?
Listen, darling, tomorrow I'll buy you a whole lot of detective stories, but don't worry your pretty little head over mysteries tonight.
I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon.
My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.
It's sometimes better to pretend I don't hear the sound of somebody in the nearby woods with a shotgun.
She grinned at me. 'You got types?' 'Only you darling - lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.
To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted.
Brigid: I haven't lived a good life - I've been bad, worse than you could know. Spade: That's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd never get anywhere.
I found I was repeating myself. It is the beginning of the end when you discover you have style.
...What disturbed him was the discovery that in sensibly ordering his affairs he had got out of step, and not into step, with Life.
I haven't any sort of plans for the future but I reckon things will work out in some manner.
The face she made at me was probably meant for a smile. Whatever it was, it beat me. I was afraid she'd do it again, so I surrendered
A lot of fancier yarns come from people trying to tell the truth. It’s not easy once you’re out of the habit.
I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink to much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does.
Our lawyers had their chat with the Supreme Court Justice, and promised to repast the chat to other members of the Supreme Court to find out whether they wanted to hear us out.
Yes,' Spade growled. 'And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it.' He released Cairo's wrist and with a thick open hand struck the side of his face three times savagely.
Listen, Dundy, it's been a long time since I burst into tears because a policeman didn't like me.
Nick: "Don't you think maybe a drink would help you to sleep?" Nora: "No, thanks." Nick: "Maybe it would if I took one.
Who shot him? I asked. The grey man scratched the back of his neck and said: Somebody with a gun.
Nora said: 'I love you, Nicky, because you smell nice and know such fascinating people.
The truth is you don't like the theater except the times when you're in a room by yourself putting the play on paper.
I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit.
Three times I have been mistaken for a prohibition agent, but never had any trouble clearing myself.
He was the perfect soldier: he went where you sent him, and stayed where you put him, and had no idea of his own to keep him from doing exactly what you told him.
Don't be so damned patronizing. Your performance so far has been a little less than dazzling.""I didn't mean no harm, " I said and kissed her. "That a new dress?""Ah! Changing the subject, you coward.
...I guess I can put two and two together.""Sometimes the answer's four, " I said, "and sometimes it's twenty-two...
Yes, ' Spade growled. 'And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it.' He released Cairo's wrist and with a thick open hand struck the side of his face three times savagely.
How about a drop of something to cut the phlegm?Why don't you stay sober today?We didn't come to New York to stay sober.