Quotes by Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler

American writer

Lived from: 1888 - 1959

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 23 july 1888 Died: 26 march 1959

  • They don't want you until you have made a name, and by the time you have made a name, you have developed some kind of talent they can't use. All they will do is spoil it, if you let them.
  • Such is the brutalization of commercial ethics in this country that no one can feel anything more delicate than the velvet touch of a soft buck.
  • It is wrong to be harsh with the New York critics, unless one admits in the same breath that it is a condition of their existence that they should write entertainingly about something which is rarely worth writing about at all.
  • What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you.
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Quotes 1 till 20 of 36.

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  • A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.
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  • A good title is the title of a successful book.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • A really good detective never gets married.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • Any man who can write a page of living prose adds something to our life, and the man who can, as I can, is surely the last to resent someone who can do it even better. An artist cannot deny art, nor would he want to. A lover cannot deny love.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • However toplofty and idealistic a man may be, he can always rationalize his right to earn money.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • I said something which gave you to think I hated cats. But gad, sir, I am one of the most fanatical cat lovers in the business. If you hate them, I may learn to hate you. If your allergies hate them, I will tolerate the situation to the best of my ability.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • I've found that there are only two kinds that are any good: slang that has established itself in the language, and slang that you make up yourself. Everything else is apt to be passé before it gets into print.
    ― 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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  • It is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • It is wrong to be harsh with the New York critics, unless one admits in the same breath that it is a condition of their existence that they should write entertainingly about something which is rarely worth writing about at all.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • Most critical writing is drivel and half of it is dishonest. It is a short cut to oblivion, anyway. Thinking in terms of ideas destroys the power to think in terms of emotions and sensations.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • Some are able and humane men and some are low-grade individuals with the morals of a goat, the artistic integrity of a slot machine, and the manners of a floorwalker with delusions of grandeur.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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  • Such is the brutalization of commercial ethics in this country that no one can feel anything more delicate than the velvet touch of a soft buck.
    ― Raymond Chandler
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What are the most famous quotes from Raymond Chandler?

The two most famous quotes from Raymond Chandler are:

  • "A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled."
  • "A good title is the title of a successful book."

When did Raymond Chandler live?

Raymond Chandler was born in 1888 and died in the year 1959.