Dashiell Hammett Quotes & Sayings

Was she jealous?" "She was," he said, not yelling now, "and domineering, and spoiled, and suspicious, and greedy, and mean, and unscrupulous, and deceitful, and selfish, and damned bad - altogether damned bad! — Dashiell Hammett

Jerome Falsoner, aged forty-five, was a bachelor who lived alone in a flat on Cathedral Street, on an income more than sufficient for his comfort. He was a tall man, but of a delicate physique, the result, it may have been, of excessive indulgence on a constitution none too strong in the beginning. He was well-known, at least by sight, to all night-living Baltimoreans, and to those who frequented race-track, gambling-house, and the furtive cockpits that now and then materialize for a few brief hours in the forty miles of country that lie between Baltimore and Washington. — Dashiell Hammett

Strictly speaking, there are no real substitutes for sexual satisfaction. — Dashiell Hammett

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

Gilbert put down the magazine he was looking at and politely said he hoped I was recovering from my injury. I said I was.
"I've never been hurt, really hurt," he went on, "that I can remember. I've tried hurting myself, of course, but that's not the same thing. It just made me uncomfortable and irritable and sweat a lot."
"That's pretty much the same thing," I said. — Dashiell Hammett

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 happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around-bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere.
Sam Spade — Dashiell Hammett

Now I pass up about twenty-five or thirty thousand of honest gain because I like being a detective, like the work. And liking work makes you want to do it as well as you can. Otherwise there'd be no sense to it. That's the fix I am in. I don't know anything else, don't enjoy anything else, don't want to know or enjoy anything else. You can't weight that against any sum of money. Money's good stuff. I haven't anything against it. — Dashiell Hammett

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 to keep them anyway, because the man at the Aquarium said he positively wouldn't take them back. He said they'd already bitten the tails off the ... — Dashiell Hammett

Nick: "Don't you think maybe a drink would help you to sleep?"
Nora: "No, thanks."
Nick: "Maybe it would if I took one. — Dashiell Hammett

Play with murder enough and it gets you one of two ways. It makes you sick, or you get to like it.
page 155 — Dashiell Hammett

Dorothy's coming up. I think she's tight."
"That's great." I picked up my bathrobe. "I was afraid I was going to have to get some sleep."
She was bending over looking for her slippers. "Don't be such an old fluff. You can sleep all day." She found her slippers and stood up in them. "Is she really as afraid of her mother as she says?"
"If she's got any sense. Mimi's poison."
Nora screwed up her dark eyes at me and asked slowly: "What are you holding out on me?"
"Oh, dear," I said, " I was hoping I wouldn't have to tell you. Dorothy is really my daughter. I didn't know what I was doing, Nora. It was spring in Venice and I was so young and there was a moon over the ... "
"Be funny. Don't you want something to eat? — Dashiell Hammett

I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit. I didn't think anything of what he had done to the city's name. Later I heard men who could manage their r's give it the same pronunciation. I still didn't see anything in it but the meaningless sort of humor that used to make richardsnary the thieves' word for dictionary. A few years later I went to Personville and learned better. — Dashiell Hammett

That's wonderful. I do like a man that tells you right out he's looking out for himself. Don't we all? I don't trust a man that says he's not. And the man that's telling the truth when he says he's not I distrust most of all, because he's and ass and an ass that's going contrary to the laws of nature. — Dashiell Hammett

If you aren't normal, it's because you're tougher, saner, cooler than normal. — Dashiell Hammett

He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him see the works. — Dashiell Hammett

He was the perfect soldier: he went where you sent him, and stayed where you put him, and had no idea of his own to keep him from doing exactly what you told him. — Dashiell Hammett

I was two pavements from my destination when somebodey S-s-s-s-s'd at me.
I probably didn't jump twenty feet. — Dashiell Hammett

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 very ones that will believe almost anything at all. — Dashiell Hammett

I haven't laughed so much over anything since the hogs ate my kid brother. — Dashiell Hammett

Three times I have been mistaken for a prohibition agent, but never had any trouble clearing myself. — Dashiell Hammett

It was a good trick, only it didn't work. In — Dashiell Hammett

You're not going to go around poking at the fire and straightening up the room again, are you? — Dashiell Hammett

You might as well take your punishment and get it over with — Dashiell Hammett

With what dope I got I think it fills me in pretty well. — Dashiell Hammett

If a man says a thing often enough, he is very likely to acquire some sort of faith in it sooner or later. — Dashiell Hammett

What I try to do is write a story about a detective rather than a detective story. Keeping the reader fooled until the last, possible moment is a good trick and I usually try to play it, but I can't attach more than secondary importance to it. The puzzle isn't so interesting to me as the behavior of the detective attacking it. — Dashiell Hammett

You don't pay a prostitute for sex, you pay her to leave afterwards. — Dashiell Hammett

She laughed. "All right, all right. Still want to leave for San Francisco tomorrow?"
Not unless you're in a hurry. Let's stick around awhile. This excitement has put us behind in our drinking. — Dashiell Hammett

He's cute," I said.
"Uh-huh," the grey man agreed, "and so's dynamite. — Dashiell Hammett

I don't know much about him; never heard him say more than nope or yup. — Dashiell Hammett

He's the guy that the joke was wrote about: 'Is he a criminal lawyer?' 'Yes, very. — Dashiell Hammett

It's awfully easy to be in love in jail. — Dashiell Hammett

He went like that," Spade said, "like a fist when you open your hand. — Dashiell Hammett

What disturbed him was the discovery that in sensibly ordering his affairs he had got out of step, and not into step, with Life. — Dashiell Hammett

I know a man who once stole a Ferris-wheel — Dashiell Hammett

Be still while I get up or I'll make an opening in your head for brains to leak in. — Dashiell Hammett

A lot of fancier yarns come from people trying to tell the truth. It's not easy once you're out of the habit. — Dashiell Hammett

It's sometimes better to pretend I don't hear the sound of somebody in the nearby woods with a shotgun. — Dashiell Hammett

I like women. I really like women. — Dashiell Hammett

He turned to face her. The two vertical lines above his nose were deep clefts between red wales. "I don't give a damn about your honesty," he told her, trying to make himself speak calmly. "I don't care what kind of tricks you're up to, what your secrets are, but I've got to have something to show that you know what you're doing."
"I do know. Please believe that I do, and that it's all for the best, and
"
"Show me," he ordered. "I'm willing to help you. I've done what I could so far. If necessary I'll go ahead blindfolded, but I can't do it without more confidence in you than I've got now. You've got to convince me that you know what it's all about, that you're not simply fiddling around by guess and by God, hoping it'll come out all right somehow in the end. — Dashiell Hammett

Yes,' Spade growled. 'And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it.' He released Cairo's wrist and with a thick open hand struck the side of his face three times savagely. — Dashiell Hammett

The truth is you don't like the theater except the times when you're in a room by yourself putting the play on paper. — Dashiell Hammett

She seems to be having a pretty good time despite her worrying. That's Lily. — Dashiell Hammett

But besides, I haven't the time, I'm too busy trying to see that you don't lose any of the money I married you for. — Dashiell Hammett

And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it." - Detective Sam Spade — Dashiell Hammett

It was his wife we objected to. Her name was Leda, but he called her Tip. She was very small and her hair, eyes, and skin, though naturally of different shades, were all muddy. She seldom sat- she perched on things - and liked to cock her head a little to one side. Nora had a theory that once when Edge opened an antique grave, Tip ran out of it, ... — Dashiell Hammett

The face she made at me was probably meant for a smile. Whatever it was, it beat me. I was afraid she'd do it again, so I surrendered — Dashiell Hammett

This damned burg's getting me. If I don't get away soon I'll be going blood-simple like the natives. — Dashiell Hammett

People always say things like, Oh, well, he was suffering so much that he was better off dying. But that's not true. You're always better off living. — Dashiell Hammett

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

You like Nick a lot, don't you, Nora?" Dorothy asked.
"He's an old Greek fool, but I'm used to him."
"Charles isn't a Greek name."
"It's Charalambides," I explained. "When the old man came over, the mugg that put him through Ellis Island said Charalambides was too long ... too much trouble to write ... and whittled it down to Charles. It was all right with the old man; they could have called him X so they let him in. — Dashiell Hammett

Nora: "How do you feel?"
Nick: "Terrible. I must've gone to bed sober. — Dashiell Hammett

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

I said: All right, talk, but do you mind putting the gun away? My wife doesn't care, but I'm pregnant and I don't want the child to be born with ... — Dashiell Hammett

Don't be so damned patronizing. Your performance so far has been a little less than dazzling."
"I didn't mean no harm," I said and kissed her. "That a new dress?"
"Ah! Changing the subject, you coward. — Dashiell Hammett

He said: "I'm going to send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means you'll be out again in twenty years. You're an angel. I'll wait for you." He cleared his throat. "If they hang you I'll always remember you. — Dashiell Hammett

I have not killed anyone. They will not let me. — Dashiell Hammett

My side felt a lot better when Nora called me at noon the next day. "My nice policeman wants to see you," she said. "How do you feel?"
"Terrible. I must've gone to bed sober." I pushed Asta out of the way and got up. — Dashiell Hammett

Looks like she's been slapping the kid again. — Dashiell Hammett

Nora said: 'I love you, Nicky, because you smell nice and know such fascinating people. — Dashiell Hammett

Our friend Nunheim was filled full of .32s just about an hour after he copped the sneak on us - deader'n hell. The pills look like they come from the same gun that cut down the Wolf dame. The experts are matching 'em up now. I guess he wishes he'd stayed and talked to us. — Dashiell Hammett

I guess I can put two and two together."
"Sometimes the answer's four," I said, "and sometimes it's twenty-two ... — Dashiell Hammett

When you write, you want fame, fortune and personal satisfaction. You want to write what you want to write and feel it's good, and you want this to go on for hundreds of years. You're not likely ever to get all these things, and you're not likely to give up writing and commit suicide if you don't, but that is
and should be
your goal. Anything else is kind of piddling. — Dashiell Hammett

Gutman smiled benignly at him and said: Well, Wilmer, I'm sorry indeed to lose you, and I want you to know that I couldn't be any fonder of you if you were my own son; but - well, by Gad! - if you lose a son it's possible to get another - and there's only one Maltese falcon. — Dashiell Hammett

Nora was eating a piece of cold duck with one hand and working on a jig-saw puzzle with the other when I got home.
"I thought you'd gone to live with her," she said. "You used to be a detective: find me a brownish piece shaped something like a snail with a long neck."
"Piece of duck or puzzle? ... — Dashiell Hammett

You know Quinn?" Macaulay asked me.
"Ten minutes ago I was putting him to bed."
Macaulay grinned. "I hope you keep his acquaintance like that - social"
"Meaning what?"
Macaulay's grin became rueful. "He used to be my broker, and his advice led me right up to the poorhouse steps."
"That's sweet," I said. "he's my broker now and I'm following his advice." Macaulay and the girl laughed. I pretended I was laughing and returned to my table. — Dashiell Hammett

She's cute, but she's cuckoo. She wouldn't be his daughter if she wasn't. You can't tell how much of what she says is what she thinks. And you can't tell how much of what she thinks ever really happened. — Dashiell Hammett

But that's the part of it I always liked. He adjusted himself to beams falling, and then no more of them fell, and he adjusted himself to them not falling. — Dashiell Hammett

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 detectives. Morelli's face was a mess: the coppers had worked him over a little just for the fun of it. Nora glared at me. "You damned fool," she said, "you didn't have to knock me cold. I knew you'd take him, but I wanted to see it."
One of the coppers laughed. "Jesus," he said admiringly, "there's a woman with hair on her chest. — Dashiell Hammett

Your playmates sent him?" I asked, nodding at the dead man. "I only talked to him with this," he said, patting the automatic on the bed, "but I reckon they did." "How did it happen?" "It happened simple enough. I heard the door opening, and I switched on the light, and there he was, and I shot him, and there he is. — Dashiell Hammett

Feed the lettuce to the bunny and eat the bunny — Dashiell Hammett

Alice opened the door when I rang. She had on green pyjamas and held a hairbrush in one hand. She looked wearily at Quinn and spoke wearily: "Bring it in."
I took it in and spread it on a bed. It mumbled something I could not make out and moved one hand feebly back and forth, but its eyes stayed shut. — Dashiell Hammett

That's Mama, divorces a lunatic and marries a gigolo. — Dashiell Hammett

Dorothy asked timidly: "Did his wife say anything?
"She sent her love to you."
Nora said: "Stop being nasty. — Dashiell Hammett

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

To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted. — Dashiell Hammett

Most things in San Francisco can be bought or taken. — Dashiell Hammett

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. — Dashiell Hammett

If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors or mounted policemen. — Dashiell Hammett

What do people think about my staying with Harrison with him chasing everything that's hot and hollow? — Dashiell Hammett

To swipe the immortal lines uttered by Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, a great mystery should take the lid off life and let [you] look at the works. — Dashiell Hammett

You got to look on the bright side, even if there ain't one. — Dashiell Hammett

you'll have your city back, all nice and clean and ready to go to the dogs again — Dashiell Hammett

The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter. — Dashiell Hammett

You're not supposed to give people things unless you're sure they'd like to get them from you ... [B]ut it goes deeper than that. when you give somebody something, you're saying out loud that you know they'd like to have you give -
Ned Beaumont, The Glass Key — Dashiell Hammett

Listen, Dundy, it's been a long time since I burst into tears because a policeman didn't like me. — Dashiell Hammett

I deserve all the love you can spare me. And I want a lot more than I deserve. — Dashiell Hammett

He looked rather pleasantly, like a blonde satan. — Dashiell Hammett

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

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

The boy spoke two words, the first a short guttural verb, the second you. — Dashiell Hammett

I once knew a man who stole a Ferris Wheel... — Dashiell Hammett

I haven't any sort of plans for the future but I reckon things will work out in some manner. — Dashiell Hammett

The roof might fall in; anything could happen. — Dashiell Hammett

You ought to have known I'd do it!" My voice sounded harsh and savage like a stranger's in my ears. "Didn't I steal a crutch from a cripple? — Dashiell Hammett

He opened the door wider. "He's waiting." He gave me what was probably meant to be a significant wink, but a corner of his mouth moved more than his eye did and the result was a fairly startling face. — Dashiell Hammett

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 that somebody's pouring water off the roof. — Dashiell Hammett

Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down - from high flat temples - in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan. — Dashiell Hammett

Another man whose social life has ruined him. — Dashiell Hammett

Thanks for the information about what we call business. — Dashiell Hammett