She grinned at me. 'You got types?' 'Only you darling - lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.

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.

Gentle With Them Thar Spurs'—a sequel to 'Riders of the Purple Sau-Sage.' Spurs was the feminist novel of its day…which was Tuesday." —Bats 2015

We're not all evil or all good, and we all make mistakes to one degree or another.

Solitude will be welcomed or endured or avoided, according as a man's personal value is large or small.

Put simply, I want to treat my readers as partners and not crooks. There is no future in calling your most active promoters crooks.

You sin in thinking bad about people - but, often, you guess right.

It's like anything in life, visualizing the old man you're going to become: As long as you have a clear picture of that - the life you want to lead - eventually you'll probably get there.

I feel guilty about smoking way too much - and I have a bit of an addiction to chocolate milk shakes, which is not good.

My peer would have to be dark-haired and handsome, a wonderful dancer... and he would never ask permission before he kissed me." -Lillian Bowman

When I was young, I had to learn the fundamentals of basketball. You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals.

The definition of prayer is paying careful and concentrated attention to something other than your own constructions.