167 Quotes by Dashiell Hammett

Talking is something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice.

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.

The outcome of successful planning always looks like luck to saps.

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

I like women. I really like women.

Most things in San Francisco can be bought or taken.

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

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

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