Raymond Chandler Quotes

Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.

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

Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all of the tricks and has nothing to say.

The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.

In writing a novel, when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.

To say goodbye is to die a little.

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.

Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.

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.

Police business is a hell of a problem. It’s a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there’s nothing in it to attract the highest type of men. So we have to work with what we get...

He didn't know the right people. That's all a police record means in this rotten crime-ridden country.

Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but production.

One day, everything will be like before again. And it is not like it.

You're broke, eh?"
I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate.