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62b24ce
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To say goodbye is to die a little.
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life
romantics
parting
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Raymond Chandler |
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60e3a82
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From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.
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Raymond Chandler |
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391041c
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I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars.
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Raymond Chandler |
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cfec2b1
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down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor--by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. "He will take no m..
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Raymond Chandler |
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9b960b9
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Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.
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noir
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Raymond Chandler |
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c2ea0ed
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I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.
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Raymond Chandler |
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9024725
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It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.
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Raymond Chandler |
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2287957
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A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can't predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.
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drinking
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Raymond Chandler |
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b1eae9b
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It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.
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sex-appeal
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Raymond Chandler |
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8e75be6
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I don't mind your showing me your legs. They're very swell legs and it's a pleasure to make their acquaintace. I don't mind if you don't like my manners. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter nights.
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sharp
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Raymond Chandler |
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e7fe363
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She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.
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Raymond Chandler |
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a8302fd
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The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.
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Raymond Chandler |
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c4baec4
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There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
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santa-anas
hard-boiled
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Raymond Chandler |
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1667bdc
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You talk too damn much and too damn much of it is about you.
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Raymond Chandler |
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6eacc8e
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You're broke, eh?" I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate."
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money
poverty
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Raymond Chandler |
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aa2e320
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As honest as you can expect a man to be in a world where its going out of style.
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Raymond Chandler |
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47c9f90
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The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right. To say goodbye is to die a little.
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Raymond Chandler |
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265f921
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She lowered her lashes until they almost cuddled her cheeks and slowly raised them again, like a theatre curtain. I was to get to know that trick. That was supposed to make me roll over on my back with all four paws in the air.
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seduction
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Raymond Chandler |
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f67d14c
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I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.
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Raymond Chandler |
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2242268
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In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and y..
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Raymond Chandler |
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4e684cc
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I merely say that all reading for pleasure is escape, whether it be Greek, mathematics, astronomy, Benedetto Croce, or The Diary of the Forgotten Man. To say otherwise is to be an intellectual snob, and a juvenile at the art of living.
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Raymond Chandler |
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755ef45
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Tall, aren't you?" she said. "I didn't mean to be." Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her."
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thinking
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Raymond Chandler |
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db3a109
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Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.
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humour
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Raymond Chandler |
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0409aeb
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Mostly I just kill time," he said, "and it dies hard."
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Raymond Chandler |
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9d70c57
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Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form inself on the edge of consciousness.
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surf
ocean
thought
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Raymond Chandler |
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93d8ecb
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There are blondes and blondes and it is almost a joke word nowadays. All blondes have their points, except perhaps the metallic ones who are as blond as a Zulu under the bleach and as to disposition as soft as a sidewalk. There is the small cute blonde who cheeps and twitters, and the big statuesque blonde who straight-arms you with an ice-blue glare. There is the blonde who gives you the up-from-under look and smells lovely and shimmers an..
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Raymond Chandler |
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8d177cc
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I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin.
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Raymond Chandler |
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33599a7
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I like bars just after they open for the evening. When the air inside is still cool and clean and everything is shiny and the barkeep is giving himself that last look in the mirror to see if his tie is straight and his hair is smooth. I like the neat bottles on the bar back and the lovely shining glasses and the anticipation. I like to watch the man mix the first one of the evening and put it down on a crisp mat and put the little folded na..
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drinking
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Raymond Chandler |
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fe6db0b
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There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhu..
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emotion
humanity
science
truth
inspirational
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Raymond Chandler |
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6442ef4
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I don't mind if you don't like my manners. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings.
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humor
philip-marlowe
manners
raymond-chandler
put-downs
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Raymond Chandler |
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37ed40d
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He was a guy who talked with commas, like a heavy novel. Over the phone anyway.
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noir
|
Raymond Chandler |
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b22c208
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I'm all done with hating you. It's all washed out of me. I hate people hard, but I don't hate them very long.
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Raymond Chandler |
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5a5149a
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You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that, oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was.
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noir
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Raymond Chandler |
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5df0ab6
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It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark little clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling ..
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Raymond Chandler |
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6aa7978
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Man has always been a venal animal. The growth of populations, the huge costs of war, the incessant pressure of confiscatory taxation - all these things make him more and more venal. The average man is tired and scared, and a tired, scared man can't afford ideals. He has to buy food for his family. In our time we have seen a shocking decline in both public and private morals. You can't expect quality from people whose lives are a subjection..
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Raymond Chandler |
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5456bd7
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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...
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politics
reality
police
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Raymond Chandler |
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5cc937b
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He snorted and hit me in the solar plexus. I bent over and took hold of the room with both hands and spun it. When I had it nicely spinning I gave it a full swing and hit myself on the back of the head with the floor.
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Raymond Chandler |
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b6c8df1
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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.
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marlowe
noir
crime
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Raymond Chandler |
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ed8fa00
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There was a sad fellow over on a bar stool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream.
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smile
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Raymond Chandler |
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92e3099
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The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful die young, but that they grow old and mean. It will not happen to me.
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death-and-dying
life
goodbyes
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Raymond Chandler |
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a166d58
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You can have a hangover from other things than alcohol. I had one from women.
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Raymond Chandler |
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c6e34aa
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A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong.
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imagination
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Raymond Chandler |
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8a85024
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What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on the top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell.
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Raymond Chandler |
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05c6b88
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She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight.
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Raymond Chandler |