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.

The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half-piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.

Mostly I just kill time," he said, "and it dies hard.

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. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was.

I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. They’re pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings.

If you liked a book, don't meet the author