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Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler Quotes

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Famous Raymond Chandler Quotes

“Writers who get written about become self-conscious. They develop a regrettable habit of looking at themselves through the eyes of other people. They are no longer alone, they have an investment in critical praise, and they think they must protect it. This leads to a diffusion of effort. The writer watches himself as he works. He grows more subtle and he pays for it by loss of organic dash.”

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Book:Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler
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“Real cities have something else, some individual bony structure under the muck. Los Angeles has Hollywood -- and hates it. It ought to consider itself damn lucky. Without Hollywood it would be a mail order city. Everything in the catalogue you could get better somewhere else.”

RealWould BeHateOrderIndividualCitiesOughtLuckyHollywoodStructureDamnGet BetterLos AngelesMailSomewhere ElseCatalogues
Book:The Little Sister: A Novel
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“[As a screenwriter] I have a sense of exile from thought, a nostalgia of the quiet room and balanced mind. I am a writer, and there comes a time when that which I write has to belong to me, has to be written alone and in silence, with no one looking over my shoulder, no one telling me a better way to write it. It doesn't have to be great writing, it doesn't even have to be terribly good. It just has to be mine.”

WayWritingMindRoomsSilenceWrittenMinesQuietNostalgiaShouldersBalancedExileBetter WaysScreenwritersGreat WritingThere Comes A TimeQuiet Room
Author:Raymond Chandler
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“Hollywood is a showman's paradise. But showmen make nothing; they exploit what someone else has made. The publisher and the play producer are showmen too; but they exploit what is already made. The showmen of Hollywood control the making - and thereby degrade it. For the basic art of motion pictures is the screenplay; it is fundamental, without it there is nothing. Everything derives from the screenplay, and most of that which derives is an applied skill which, however adept, is artistically not in the same class with the creation of a screenplay.”

ArtMadePlayClassCreationSkillsHollywoodFundamentalsProducersParadisePublishersExploitsScreenplaysDegradeMotion PicturesAdept
Book:Later Novels & Other Writings
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“The wise screen writer is he who wears his second-best suit, artistically speaking, and doesn't take things too much to heart. He should have a touch of cynicism, but only a touch. The complete cynic is as useless to Hollywood as he is to himself. He should do the best he can without straining at it. He should be scrupulously honest about his work, but he should not expect scrupulous honesty in return. He won't get it. And when he has had enough, he should say goodbye with a smile, because for all he knows he may want to go back.”

KnowsWantShouldHeartMayEnoughToo MuchWiseHonestHonestyReturnShould HaveHollywoodScreensSuitsUselessGoodbyeCynicismDo The BestSaying GoodbyeHad EnoughCynicSecond BestSmile Because
Author:Raymond Chandler
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“Their constant yelping about a free press means, with a few honorable exceptions, freedom to peddle scandal, crime, sex, sensationalism, hate, innuendo and the political and financial uses of propaganda. A newspaper is a business out to make money through advertising revenue. That is predicated on the circulation and you know what circulation depends on.”

KnowsMeanUsePoliticalHateSexCrimeDependsPressesConstantFinancialNewspapersAdvertisingMaking MoneyPropagandaExceptionHonorableScandalRevenueCirculationFree PressInnuendoSensationalism
Book:The Long Goodbye: A Novel
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“The impulse to perfection cannot exist where the definition of perfection is the arbitrary decision of authority. That which is born in loneliness and from the heart cannot be defended against the judgment of a committee of sycophants. The volatile essences which make literature cannot survive the clichés of a long series of story conferences.”

HeartLongStoriesLiteratureBornDecisionLonelinessAuthorityJudgmentPerfectionEssenceSeriesDefinitionsImpulseCommitteesConferencesArbitrarySycophants
Book:Raymond Chandler Speaking
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“I'm a very smart guy. I haven't a feeling or a scruple in the world. All I have the itch for is money. I am so money greedy that for twenty-five bucks a day and expenses, mostly gasoline and whisky, I do my thinking myself, what there is of it; I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops . . . I dodge bullets and eat saps, and say thank you very much, if you have any more trouble, I hope you'll think of me, I'll just leave one of my cards in case anything comes up.”

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Author:Raymond Chandler
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“So by all means let's have a television show quick and long, even if the commercial has to be delivered by a man in a white coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck, selling ergot pills. After all the public is entitled to what it wants, isn't it? The Romans knew that and even they lasted four hundred years after they started to putrefy.”

IfsMenWantYearsMeanLongShowsWhiteFourTelevisionHundredSellingNecksEntitledCoatsPillsTelevision ShowsHanging AroundStethoscopeWhite Coat
Book:Raymond Chandler Speaking
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“Love interest nearly always weakens a mystery because it introduces a type of suspense that is antagonistic to the detective's struggle to solve the problem. It stacks the cards, and in nine cases out of ten, it eliminates at least two useful suspects. The only effective love interest is that which creates a personal hazard for the detective - but which, at the same time, you instinctively feel to be a mere episode. A really good detective never gets married.”

FeelsTwoProblemInterestCasesStruggleMysteryTypeTenMarriedMereSolveNineCardsSuspenseSuspectsIntroducingEpisodesDetectivesHazards
Book:Raymond Chandler Speaking
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“May I wish for you the knowledge...that marriages do not take place, they are made by hand; that there is always an element of discipline involved; that however perfect the honeymoon, the time will come, however brief it is, when you wish she would fall downstairs and break a leg. This goes for her too. But the mood will pass, if you give it time.”

IfsGivingMayMadeHandsFallWishPerfectBreakDisciplineInvolvedElementsLegsMoodFalling DownHoneymoonBreak A Leg
Author:Raymond Chandler
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“You don't get rich, you don't often have much fun. Sometimes you get beaten up or shot at or tossed into the jail house. Once in a long while you get dead. Every other month you decide to give it up and find some sensible occupation while you can still walk without shaking your head. Then the door buzzer rings and you open the inner door to the waiting room and there stands a new face with a new problem, a new load of grief, and a small piece of money.”

GivingLongStillsSometimesProblemFacesHouseFunWaitingWalksRoomsGriefRichPiecesDoorsMonthsShotsRingsJailOccupationSensibleLoadBeatenShakingGet RichSmall PiecesWaiting RoomsNew FacesBuzzers
Book:The Long Goodbye: A Novel
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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 on four million dollars.”

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Book:The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely
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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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Book:Trouble Is My Business: A Novel
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