Hardboiled Quotes & Sayings

From Chapter 1:
"You're not a local." I paused, unsure. "Or are you?"
"Sort of. Randall Van Dotson is my dad. I'm Rennie."
After tossing her head that coy, sweet way girls do, she gave me a candid appraisal. — Ed Lynskey

The only thing he likes better than a nice juicy homicide is a sirloin steak smothered with onions. — Richard Brautigan

Clifford paints true-to-life characters with the same gritty touch as the best of Dennis Lehane. Straightforward and edgy, Lamentation gnaws with nail-biting tension on every page. A must-read for contemporary hardboiled mystery fans who appreciate the type of terse dialogue and real life conflicts and settings Elmore Leonard so richly brought to life. — Robert Dugoni

James Cain was saddled with being called the father of hardboiled fiction. Apparently, he didn't like this saddle. — Bill Callahan

You ever choke a man out with his own shirt?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"A yes or no one. — Todd Morr

I'm not sure many writers are trying to reconcile all the things that are separated in our culture - body and mind, urban and pastoral, lyricism and hardboiled, men and women, joy and grief. I tried to do quite a lot, but I wanted to create a serious work of literature. — Nicola Griffith

In near panic, I craned my neck to gaze over the cabin's roofline a bursting fireball. — Ed Lynskey

Personality is a piece of paper that folds in to conceal different sides and display others, like an Origami — Alejandro Colliard

I've always liked police-blotter kind of writing, or the writing of a policeman, right to the point and hardboiled. That's how I see at least the prose elements of scriptwriting. — Jonathan Ames

I've met a lot of hardboiled eggs in my time, but you're twenty minutes. — Billy Wilder

Quote taken from Chapter 1:
That's the idea. Listen, Frank, this one is different. She's a keeper." He let that part gel in me. "Get your head screwed on straight and move to Richmond. You hate it living in Pelham. — Ed Lynskey

I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake — James M. Cain

I've never been a morning person, and if it's one thing I don't need before my first cup of coffee, it's a visit from the cops. But at eight forty-five on a Friday morning, two of them waited for me at my law office. — Debbi Mack

I don't greatly care for passes this early in the morning. — Raymond Chandler

My feet crunched over dry hickory leaves. Wood rangers had stapled up Smokey Bear ("Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires!") signs along the state roads. One cigarette butt flicked out a passing car window and there'd be real hell to pay. — Ed Lynskey

A diamond wedding ring, you say?"
I studied his face. Was he putting me on? He looked earnest. "As any guy would expect, a diamond is what she's after," I said. "Did you hold out hope you'd get by for anything less? — Ed Lynskey

And if we're talking about hard-boiled detectives, too, what could be more hardboiled than the worldview of Ligotti or Cioran? They make the grittiest of crime writers seem like dilettantes. Next to The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, Mickey Spillane seems about as hard-boiled as bubble gum. — Nic Pizzolatto

Get a load of this, Frank." Gerald Peyton's pause set off his pronouncement. "She is expecting to get a wedding ring."
"That's understandable," I said, unsure how he could afford a ring on what our firm cleared. Diamond rings - more sold in December than in any other month of the year - went for a cool grand per karat. Weeks ago, I'd priced them - again - for my domestic situation. "What seems to be the problem?"
"That's a big leap for me to make."
"I expect you'll make it with room to spare. — Ed Lynskey

Crime fiction, especially noir and hardboiled, is the literature of the proletariat. — Adrian McKinty

He stood at the entrance to the kitchen, blocking my path to the front door like the Berlin Wall. -- Least Wanted — Debbi Mack

Hardboiled crime fiction came of age in 'Black Mask' magazine during the Twenties and Thirties. Writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler learnt their craft and developed a distinct literary style and attitude toward the modern world. — Charles Frazier

Somebody should have taken him to a stationary store and pointed out the difference between an envelope and a whore. — Richard Brautigan

I ought to be more hardboiled; I'd like to be. I don't think I have it in me. To write in clipped sentences. To employ gritty metaphor in the introduction of sultry blondes ... I can't do it, so why bother trying? — Jesse Kellerman

How the Hell is it we go to pick up Jenna Jameson and end up with the fucking chick from those Kill Bill movies? — Todd Morr

I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman. — James M. Cain

I let my gaze travel out the picture window. Unlike at my old doublewide trailer perched on the fringe of a played out quarry, here I owned a real yard with real grass that screamed for mowing each Monday a.m. I sat at the kitchen table, cooling off from just having finished this week's job. Yes, here in 2005, I was a full-fledged suburbanite, but I'd been called worse. — Ed Lynskey

The world will run you down and slam a tire over your exploding skull and not even wonder what it had just hit. — Duane Swierczynski

He looked as if he'd got a lot of pleasure out of going ten rounds with your grandmother and making sure she went the whole distance. — Richard Brautigan

She's a nice girl. Not my type." "You don't like them nice?" He had another cigarette going. The smoke was being fanned away from his face by his hand. "I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin." "They take you to the cleaners," Randall said indifferently. — Raymond Chandler

I knew the men were probably terrible people who whistled at pretty girls, treated their wives like servants, and voted for Nixon every chance they got, but as far as I was concerned, they beat the hell out of a Volvo-load of liberals for hard work and good times. — James Crumley

Just the night before, a puma's howl had set a chill at my spine and, man, life didn't get any richer than that. — Ed Lynskey

She wore a loose bathrobe that covered up a body that would have won first prize in a beauty contest for cement blocks ... She had a voice that made pearl harbour sound like a lullaby. — Richard Brautigan

I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin. — Raymond Chandler