Who shot him? I asked. The grey man scratched the back of his neck and said: Somebody with a gun.

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.

Defy me not for gleam can only shine in my existence" said Darkness.

I have always gotten a thrill, a kick, from learning new things.

But after a certain point in a marriage, you stopped having a certain kind of fight, Olive thought, because when the years behind you were more than the years in front of you, things were different.

Try for a goal that's reasonable, then gradually raise it.

And at five o'clock in the morning we left to drive to Old Tucson, and I sat with my mouth open in the van. I was stunned by the beauty of that country.

I'll tell you how to beat the gambling in Las Vegas. When you get off the airplane, walk right into the propeller.

If ambitious fantasies make people blush, and sexual fantasies make people blush and feel guilty, fantasies of violence and death may make people blush and feel guilty-and frightened too.

There is something so rewarding about dancing. It's almost spiritual - you let loose, you feel free, you get endorphins from the exercise.

If you're sick, watch funny movies.

I had a handful of records, but when I was 11 years old, I liked Puccini as much as Little Richard. They both made sense to me.