I’ve just read Raymond Chandler’s THE LONG GOODBYE and FAREWELL MY LOVELY with funny, melancholy tough guy LA detective, Philip Marlowe, and seen both old films too, and the quotes just pop out at you from time to time and you say, “Well, let me think about that.” or “I wish I’d come up with that one.” A world weary way of going through life, taking chances and taking what comes to him when it does. There’s something almost refreshing in Marlowe’s refusal to put on airs and his stubborn willingness to just accept how most things are. No big ambition to social climb or change his place in the world. He is willing to help those who’ve gotten into trouble or need protection or a small act of kindness, even at great risk to himself. Courage or resignation, I’m not sure which, or a nice combination of the two.

—But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.

—There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself.

—It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.

—I knew one thing: as soon as anyone said you didn’t need a gun, you’d better take one along that worked.

—The streets were dark with something more than night.

—Woe, woe, woe… in a little while we shall all be dead. Therefore let us behave as though we were dead already.

Also:
“Dead men are heavier than broken hearts”
– The Big Sleep

“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.”
– Farewell, My Lovely

“I’m an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.”
– Philip Marlowe’s Guide To Life

“Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.”
– The Big Sleep

“Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.”
– The Big Sleep