To say goodbye is to die a little.
There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself.
Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
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.
I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars.
Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.
There is no bad whiskey. There are only some whiskeys that aren't as good as others.
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.
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.
It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.
Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.
It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.
She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.
The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.
The streets were dark with something more then night.
You talk too damn much and too damn much of it is about you.
As honest as you can expect a man to be in a world where its going out of style.
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.
He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake.
You're broke, eh?" I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate.
I was neat, clean, shaved and sober and I didn't care who knew it.
I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.
In writing a novel, when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.
Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.
A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.
I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin.
Mostly I just kill time," he said, "and it dies hard.
He was a guy who talked with commas, like a heavy novel. Over the phone anyway.
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.
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.
