He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him see the works.

I don t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.

To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted.

He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him see the works.

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

The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.

Who shot him? I asked. The grey man scratched the back of his neck and said: Somebody with a gun.