It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.

We have the whitest kitchens and the most shining bathrooms in the world. But in the lovely white kitchen the average [person] can’t produce a meal fit to eat, and the lovely shining bathroom is mostly a receptacle for deodorants, laxatives, sleeping pills, and the products of that confidence racket called the cosmetic industry. We make the finest packages in the world, Mr Marlowe. The stuff inside is mostly junk." —

There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself.

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

The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated.

To say goodbye is to die a little.

A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.