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 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.

As we drove, I imagined we were standing still and the world was coming toward us.

You teach what you know... but impart who you are.

Now God be thanked that the name of a hill is such music, that the name of a river can heal.

I never thought I would be divorced.

Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.

Tonight's show is about doubt. Or maybe it isn't - haven't made my mind up yet.

He who sings a song to Christ in the night, sings the best song in all the world; for he sings from the heart.

When we hew or delve: After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.

So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality.

Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work.