“He looked rather pleasantly, like a blonde satan.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready.
Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“We didn't exactly believe your story.'
Then --?'
'We believed your two hundred dollars.'
'You mean --' She seemed not to know what he meant.
'I mean that you paid us more than if you'd been telling the truth,' he explained blandly, 'and enough more to make it all right.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. Then it happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around-bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere.
Sam Spade”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him see the works.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink to much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“Brigid O'Shaughnessy: “I haven't lived a good life. I've been bad, worse than you could know.”
Sam Spade “You know, that's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd never get anywhere”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“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. (Kasper Gutman)”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“Listen, Dundy, it's been a long time since I burst into tears because a policeman didn't like me.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“He said: "I'm going to send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means you'll be out again in twenty years. You're an angel. I'll wait for you." He cleared his throat. "If they hang you I'll always remember you.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“Talking is something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“Yes,' Spade growled. 'And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it.' He released Cairo's wrist and with a thick open hand struck the side of his face three times savagely.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“That's wonderful. I do like a man that tells you right out he’s looking out for himself. Don’t we all? I don’t trust a man that says he’s not. And the man that’s telling the truth when he says he’s not I distrust most of all, because he’s and ass and an ass that’s going contrary to the laws of nature.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“You always have, I must say, a smooth explanation ready."
"What do you want me to do? Learn to stutter?”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“The hell of it, Miss- Is your name Wonderly or Leblanc?' She blushed and murmured: 'It's really O'Shaughnessy - Brigid O'Shaughnessy”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“-Desapareció - dijo Spade - como desaparece un puño cuando se abre la mano.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“But that's the part of it I always liked. He adjusted himself to beams falling, and then no more of them fell, and he adjusted himself to them not falling.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of
his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were
horizontal. The V motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases
above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down--from high flat temples--in a point on
his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond Satan.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“He turned to face her. The two vertical lines above his nose were deep clefts between red wales. "I don't give a damn about your honesty," he told her, trying to make himself speak calmly. "I don't care what kind of tricks you're up to, what your secrets are, but I've got to have something to show that you know what you're doing."
"I do know. Please believe that I do, and that it's all for the best, and--"
"Show me," he ordered. "I'm willing to help you. I've done what I could so far. If necessary I'll go ahead blindfolded, but I can't do it without more confidence in you than I've got now. You've got to convince me that you know what it's all about, that you're not simply fiddling around by guess and by God, hoping it'll come out all right somehow in the end.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“Gutman smiled benignly at him and said: “Well, Wilmer, I’m sorry indeed to lose you, and I want you to know that I couldn’t be any fonder of you if you were my own son; but—well, by Gad!—if you lose a son it’s possible to get another—and there’s only one Maltese falcon.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“You're good. You're very good. It's chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get into your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“[Spade] scowled at Gutman and burst out irritably: "Jesus God! is this the first thing you guys ever stole? You're a fine lot of lollipops! What are you going to do next-- get down and pray?”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it." - Detective Sam Spade”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down—from high flat temples—in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“We begin well, sir," the fat man purred … "I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink too much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does. … Well, sir, here's to plain speaking and clear understanding. … You're a close-mouthed man?"
Spade shook his head. "I like to talk."
"Better and better!" the fat man exclaimed. "I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice.”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“You're not going to go around poking at the fire and straightening up the room again, are you?”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
“Cairo: You have always, i must say, a smooth explanation ready.
Spade: What do you want me to do? Learn to stutter?”
― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon
Dashiell Hammett
Born place: in St. Mary's County, Maryland, The United States
Born date May 27, 1894
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“You're the one who has to live with your choice," she says. "Everyone else will get over it, move on, no matter what you decide. But you never will.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Transfer
“Oči má šedé. Vlasy má rozcuchané a mokré. Prsty má jako buřtíky. Nehty má pokousané a polámané. Zuby má křivé, rozeklané. Má prázdný pohled, a když jste jí poblíž, vzbuzuje ve vás pocit nepřítomnosti, který se nedá slovy vyjádřit. Jejím znakem je prsten s háčkem. Jednoho dne se vám ten háček zadře do srdce. Popsat ji znamená vyjádřit, co je a proč je: přijde, když naděje pomine. Je v tisících čekáren a prázdných ulicích, v budovách ze šedého betonu a v bezejmenných hotelech. Je na druhé straně každého zrcadla. když tě oči, které se na tebe dívají, znají až moc dobře. Stojí a čeká a v jejím postoji ti už bolest neříká, abys žil, a v její přítomnosti je radost nepředstavitelná.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Sandman: Endless Nights
“There is one in this tribe too often miserable - a child bereaved of both parents. None cares for this child: she is fed sometimes, but oftener forgotten: a hut rarely receives her: the hollow tree and chill cavern are her home. Forsaken, lost, and wandering, she lives more with the wild beast and bird than with her own kind. Hunger and cold are her comrades: sadness hovers over, and solitude besets her round. Unheeded and unvalued, she should die: but she both lives and grows: the green wilderness nurses her, and becomes to her a mother: feeds her on juicy berry, on saccharine root and nut.
There is something in the air of this clime which fosters life kindly: there must be something, too, in its dews, which heals with sovereign balm. Its gentle seasons exaggerate no passion, no sense; its temperature tends to harmony; its breezes, you would say, bring down from heaven the germ of pure thought, and purer feeling. Not grotesquely fantastic are the forms of cliff and foliage; not violently vivid the colouring of flower and bird: in all the grandeur of these forests there is repose; in all their freshness there is tenderness.
The gentle charm vouchsafed to flower and tree, - bestowed on deer and dove, - has not been denied to the human nursling. All solitary, she has sprung up straight and graceful. Nature cast her features in a fine mould; they have matured in their pure, accurate first lines, unaltered by the shocks of disease. No fierce dry blast has dealt rudely with the surface of her frame; no burning sun has crisped or withered her tresses: her form gleams ivory-white through the trees; her hair flows plenteous, long, and glossy; her eyes, not dazzled by vertical fires, beam in the shade large and open, and full and dewy: above those eyes, when the breeze bares her forehead, shines an expanse fair and ample, - a clear, candid page, whereon knowledge, should knowledge ever come, might write a golden record. You see in the desolate young savage nothing vicious or vacant; she haunts the wood harmless and thoughtful: though of what one so untaught can think, it is not easy to divine.
On the evening of one summer day, before the Flood, being utterly alone - for she had lost all trace of her tribe, who had wandered leagues away, she knew not where, - she went up from the vale, to watch Day take leave and Night arrive. A crag, overspread by a tree, was her station: the oak-roots, turfed and mossed, gave a seat: the oak-boughs, thick-leaved, wove a canopy.
Slow and grand the Day withdrew, passing in purple fire, and parting to the farewell of a wild, low chorus from the woodlands. Then Night entered, quiet as death: the wind fell, the birds ceased singing. Now every nest held happy mates, and hart and hind slumbered blissfully safe in their lair.
The girl sat, her body still, her soul astir; occupied, however, rather in feeling than in thinking, - in wishing, than hoping, - in imagining, than projecting. She felt the world, the sky, the night, boundlessly mighty. Of all things, herself seemed to herself the centre, - a small, forgotten atom of life, a spark of soul, emitted inadvertent from the great creative source, and now burning unmarked to waste in the heart of a black hollow. She asked, was she thus to burn out and perish, her living light doing no good, never seen, never needed, - a star in an else starless firmament, - which nor shepherd, nor wanderer, nor sage, nor priest, tracked as a guide, or read as a prophecy? Could this be, she demanded, when the flame of her intelligence burned so vivid; when her life beat so true, and real, and potent; when something within her stirred disquieted, and restlessly asserted a God-given strength, for which it insisted she should find exercise?”
― Charlotte Brontë, quote from Shirley
“Seduce my mind and you can have my body, Find my soul and I’m yours forever. —ANONYMOUS”
― Nora Roberts, quote from Vision in White
“Caleb,” I called and looked at him. “I need you.” He looked surprised as he came forward. “What do you need?” “You.” “Does this require a human sacrifice?” he said joking. “No,” I laughed and heard Jen laugh too. “You remember I told you how I needed you at my side? I do, always. I can’t do any of this without you. Your touch is the trigger.” “It is?” he said in surprise. “You are just as important as I am. In the vision, I saw that you and I will be the key, not just me. Everything we’ll accomplish, we’ll do it together or not at all.”
― Shelly Crane, quote from Accordance
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