Quote

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.

Raymond Chandler

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Raymond Chandler
Age: 70 †
Born: 1888
Born: July 23
Died: 1959
Died: March 26
Novelist
Poet
Screenwriter
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Raymond Thornton Chandler
Asks
Politics
Attract
Business
Police
Problem
Highest
Nothing
Type
Good
Deal
Men
Deals
Like
Hell

More quotes by Raymond Chandler

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If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.
Raymond Chandler
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The keynote of American civilization is a sort of warm-hearted vulgarity. The Americans have none of the irony of the English, none of their cool poise, none of their manner. But they do have friendliness. Where an Englishman would give you his card, an American would very likely give you his shirt.
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Don't ever write anything you don't like yourself and if you do like it, don't take anyone's advice about changing it. They just don't know.
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The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.
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A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else.
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I knew one thing: as soon as anyone said you didn't need a gun, you'd better take one along that worked.
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I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. I put it back where I had moved it from. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights.
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She was the music heard faintly on the edge of sound.
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However toplofty and idealistic a man may be, he can always rationalize his right to earn money.
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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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Technique alone is never enough. You have to have passion. Technique alone is just an embroidered potholder.
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I have made three rules of writing for myself that are absolutes: Never take advice. Never show or discuss work in progress. Never answer a critic.
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The kind of lawyer you hope the other fellow has.
Raymond Chandler
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One would think a writer would be happy here — if a writer is ever happy anywhere.
Raymond Chandler
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Down these mean streets a man must go who is neither tarnished nor afraid
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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.
Raymond Chandler
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A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled.
Raymond Chandler
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If you liked a book, don't meet the author
Raymond Chandler
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When a book, any sort of book, reaches a certain intensity of artistic performance, it becomes literature. That intensity may be a matter of style, situation, character, emotional tone, or idea, or half a dozen other things. It may also be a perfection of control over the movement of a story similar to the control a great pitcher has over the ball.
Raymond Chandler
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I certainly admire people who do things.
Raymond Chandler