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 don t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.

I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.

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.

Feed the lettuce to the bunny and eat the bunny.

I once knew a man who stole a Ferris Wheel.

The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.

A person has to be comfortable in his or her own skin.

It became clear to me that simply caring is not enough. To drive real progress, you have to change both hearts and laws. You need both understanding and action.

Cultivate your Futurism. I'll cultivate my Döblinism.

If you want to please the critics, don't play too loud, too soft, too fast, too slow.

I haven't got the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.

By nature, you're aggressive, if you're a fighter, so you deal with things in an aggressive way.

Words have no language which can utter the secrets of love; and beyond the limits of expression is the expounding of desire.

The whole culture is under terrible pressure and fraught with worry. It's hard to get out of that box. That's the dominant situation all over the world.

Any manager will tell you that they would rather win one and lose two than to draw three, because you get more points

I started violently, as if some unseen hand had goosed me.