Men came in and dragged us apart. It took us five minutes to bring Nora to. She sat up holding her cheek and looked around the room until she saw Morelli, nippers on one wrist, standing between two de...
If the Old Man said something was so, then it probably was, because he was one of these cautious babies who'll look out the window at a cloudburst and say, It seems to be raining, on the off-chance th...
If a man says a thing often enough, he is very likely to acquire some sort of faith in it sooner or later.
I'll give you your Christmas present now if you'll give me mine.I shook my head. At breakfast.But it's Christmas now.Breakfast.Whatever you're giving me, she said, I hope I don't like it.You'll have t...
I was reading a sign high on the wall behind the bar:
I suppose you'll see her. You'll be disappointed at first. Then without being able to say how or when it happened, you'll find you've forgotten your disappointment, and the first thing you know you'll...
I said: You don't want to pick a fight with me, Mimi.She looked at me as if she were going to say I love you, and asked: Is that a threat?
His wife was a tall, stringy woman, perhaps five years older than her husband—say, forty—with a mouth and chin that seemed shaped for gossiping.
He's cute, I said. Uh-huh, the grey man agreed, and so's dynamite.
He went like that, Spade said, like a fist when you open your hand.
He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him see the works.
He did not smile. I don't believe in anything, but I'm too much of a gambler not to be affected by a lot of things.
Cairo: You have always, i must say, a smooth explanation ready.Spade: What do you want me to do? Learn to stutter?
Are you – who make your living snooping – sneering at my curiosity about people and my attempts to satisfy it? We're different, I said. I do mine with the object of putting people in jail, and I get p...
Он исчез, как исчезает кулак, когда разжимаешь пальцы («Мальтийский сокол»)
[Spade] scowled at Gutman and burst out irritably: Jesus God! is this the first thing you guys ever stole? You're a fine lot of lollipops! What are you going to do next-- get down and pray?
You're good. You're very good. It's chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get into your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.
You're drunk, and I'm drunk, and I'm just exactly drunk enough to tell you anything you want to know. That's the kind of girl I am. If I like a person, I'll tell them anything they want to know. Just...
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...
The people who lie the most are nearly always the clumsiest at it, and they're easier to fool with lies than most people, too. You'd think they'd be on the look-out for lies, but they seem to be the v...