Philip Marlowe: "'Okay Marlowe, ' I said to myself. 'You're a tough guy. You've been sapped twice, choked, beaten silly with a gun, shot in the arm until you're crazy as a couple of waltzing mice. Now let's see you do something really tough - like putting your pants on.'"
Lt. Randall: You're not a detective, you're a slot machine. You'd slit your own throat for 6 bits plus tax.
Philip Marlowe: That's what happens when you let a cop go to college. He gets too smart.
Philip Marlowe: Either book me, or let me go home and go to bed.
Philip Marlowe: He was doubled up on his face in that bag-of-old-clothes position that always means the same thing: he had been killed by an amateur. Or, by somebody who wanted it to look like an amateur job. Nobody else would hit a man that many times with a sap.
Philip Marlowe: He died in 1940, in the middle of a glass of beer. His wife Jessie finished it for him.
Ann Grayle: You know, I think you're nuts. You go barging around without a very clear idea of what you're doing. Everybody bats you down, smacks you over the head, fills you full of stuff... and you keep right on hitting between tackle and end. I don't think you even know which SIDE you're on.
Philip Marlowe: I don't know which side anybody's on. I don't even know who's playing today.
Lindsay Marriott: I'm afraid I don't like your manner.
Philip Marlowe: Yeah, I've had complaints about it, but it keeps getting worse.
Philip Marlowe: It was a nice little front yard. Cozy, OK for the average family. Only you'd need a compass to go to the mailbox. The house was all right, too, but it wasn't as big as Buckingham Palace.
Jules Amthor: Your thinking is untidy like most so-called thinking today. You depress me.
Philip Marlowe: My throat felt sore, but the fingers feeling it didn't feel anything. They were just a bunch of bananas that looked like fingers.
Philip Marlowe: Skip the water. Make that one with scotch. It'll save time.
Helen Grayle: I hadn't supposed there were enough murders these days to make detecting very attractive to a young man.
Philip Marlowe: I stir up trouble on the side.
Helen Grayle: Let's dispense with the polite drinking, shall we?
Philip Marlowe: She had more than a figure too. Not a beautiful face, but a good face. She had a face like a Sunday School picnic. You have any idea what kind of face that is, Nulty?
Detective Nulty: I wouldn't know.
Helen Grayle: It's a long story and not pretty.
Philip Marlowe: I got lots of time and I'm not squeamish.
Philip Marlowe: Now this is beginning to make sense, in a screwy sort of a way. I get dragged in and get money shoved at me. I get pushed out and get money shoved at me. Everybody pushes me in, everybody pushes me out. Nobody wants me to DO anything. OK, put a check in the mail. I cost a lot not to do anything. I get restless. Throw in a trip to Mexico.
Philip Marlowe: I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in. It had no bottom. I felt pretty good - like an amputated leg.
