He was a guy who talked with commas, like a heavy novel. Over the phone anyway.

The average detective story is probably no worse than the average novel, but you never see the average novel. It doesn't get published. The average -- or only slightly above average -- detective story does.... Whereas the good novel is not at all the same kind of book as the bad novel. It is about entirely different things. But the good detective story and the bad detective story are about exactly the same things, and they are about them in very much the same way.

Some days I feel like playing it smooth. Some days I feel like playing it like a waffle iron.

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

I sat down on the edge of a deep soft chair and looked at Mrs Regan. She was worth a stare. She was trouble.

Its big men are mostly little men with fancy offices and a lot of money. A great many of them are stupid little men, with reach-me-down brains, small-town arrogance and a sort of animal knack of smelling out the taste of the stupidest part of the public. They have played in luck so long that they have come to mistake luck for enlightenment." - on Hollywood

The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right. To say goodbye is to die a little.