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 HammettWhat I try to do is write a story about a detective rather than a detective story. Keeping the reader fooled until the last, possible moment is a good trick and I usually try to play it, but I can't attach more than secondary importance to it. The puzzle isn't so interesting to me as the behavior of the detective attacking it.
Dashiell HammettThe problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.
Dashiell HammettI first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit.
Dashiell Hammett