California, the department-store state. The most of everything and the best of nothing. Raymond Chandler More Quotes by Raymond Chandler More Quotes From Raymond Chandler The perfect detective story cannot be written. The type of mind which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can produce the artistic job of writing. Raymond Chandler perfectwritingjobs The average detective story is probably no worse than the average novel, but you never see the average novel. It doesn't get published. The average -- or only slightly above average -- detective story does.... Whereas the good novel is not at all the same kind of book as the bad novel. It is about entirely different things. But the good detective story and the bad detective story are about exactly the same things, and they are about them in very much the same way. Raymond Chandler doeaveragebook We have the whitest kitchens and the most shining bathrooms in the world. But in the lovely white kitchen the average [person] can’t produce a meal fit to eat, and the lovely shining bathroom is mostly a receptacle for deodorants, laxatives, sleeping pills, and the products of that confidence racket called the cosmetic industry. We make the finest packages in the world, Mr Marlowe. The stuff inside is mostly junk." — Raymond Chandler whitesleepaverage Great critics, of whom there are piteously few, build a home for the truth. Raymond Chandler criticshome Any man who can write a page of living prose adds something to our life, and the man who can, as I can, is surely the last to resent someone who can do it even better. An artist cannot deny art, nor would he want to. A lover cannot deny love. Raymond Chandler appreciationloveart All reading for pleasure is entertainment. Raymond Chandler entertainmentpleasurereading Courage is a strange thing: One can never be sure of it Raymond Chandler strange-thingsstrangeinspiration Your rat tail is all the fashion now. I prefer a bushy plume, carried straight up. You are Siamese and your ancestors lived in trees. Mine lived in palaces. It has been suggested to me that I am a bit of a snob. How true! I prefer to be. Raymond Chandler catfashiontree He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn't owe too much money. Raymond Chandler big-sleeptoo-muchmen Show me a man or woman who cannot stand mysteries and I will show you a fool, a clever fool - perhaps - but a fool just the same. Raymond Chandler foolclevermen You don't get rich, you don't often have much fun. Sometimes you get beaten up or shot at or tossed into the jail house. Once in a long while you get dead. Every other month you decide to give it up and find some sensible occupation while you can still walk without shaking your head. Then the door buzzer rings and you open the inner door to the waiting room and there stands a new face with a new problem, a new load of grief, and a small piece of money. Raymond Chandler jailgrieffun May I wish for you the knowledge...that marriages do not take place, they are made by hand; that there is always an element of discipline involved; that however perfect the honeymoon, the time will come, however brief it is, when you wish she would fall downstairs and break a leg. This goes for her too. But the mood will pass, if you give it time. Raymond Chandler break-a-leghandsfall The most durable thing in writing is style. It is a projection of personality and you have to have a personality before you can project it. It is the product of emotion and perception. Raymond Chandler perceptionpersonalitywriting The minute you try to talk business with him he takes the attitude that he is a gentleman and a scholar, and the moment you try to approach him on the level of his moral integrity he starts to talk business. Raymond Chandler gentlemanattitudeintegrity If you believe in an idea, you don't own you, it owns you. Raymond Chandler passionbelieveideas The agent never receipts his bill, puts his hat on and bows himself out. He stays around forever, not only for as long as you can write anything that anyone will buy, but as long as anyone will buy any portion of any right to anything that you ever did write. He just takes ten per cent of your life. Raymond Chandler foreverwritinglong If you liked a book, don't meet the author Raymond Chandler literatureifsbook Television is just one more facet of that considerable segment of our society that never had any standard but the soft buck. Raymond Chandler bucksour-societytelevision The moment a man begins to talk about technique that's proof that he is fresh out of ideas. Raymond Chandler techniquemenideas The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring. Raymond Chandler designreadingbook
