I just tell you what happens. I don't explain it.

I don t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.

I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.

The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.

Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready. Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?

Listen, darling, tomorrow I'll buy you a whole lot of detective stories, but don't worry your pretty little head over mysteries tonight.

I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon.

My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.

Feed the lettuce to the bunny and eat the bunny.

I once knew a man who stole a Ferris Wheel.

The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.

I love books. I enjoyed reading.

God does give times of peace in our Christian lives, but it is not all of the time.

The greatest enemy of progress is the illusion of knowledge.

If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.

I ask the fundamental question of rationality: Why do you believe what you believe? What do you think you know and how do you think you know it?

I went back to graduate school because I wanted to avoid being a professional, to try to piece together a life that would let me avoid the tenure race and full-time teaching.

He wears himself out by his labours, and grows old through his love of possessing wealth.

But as soon as I joined 'Six Feet Under', I felt like I was finally doing something again that the fans really loved, and I could stop being afraid of 'Clueless' fans!

Riches amassed in haste will diminish; but those collected by hand and little by little will multiply.

Chastity is oftener owing to diffidence and shame, than to fortitude of reason or virtue.