Dashiell Hammett Short Quotes

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The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.

Dashiell Hammett
"You're a damn good man, sister," he said and went out.

Dashiell Hammett
"How do you feel?"
"Terrible. I must have gone to bed sober."

Dashiell Hammett
It is the beginning of the end when you discover you have style.

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

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

Dashiell Hammett
"You got types?"
"Only you, darling-lanky brunettes with wicked jaws."

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

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

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

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

Dashiell Hammett
Our conversations have not been such that I am anxious to continue them in private.

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

Dashiell Hammett
My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.

Dashiell Hammett
But where knowledge of trickery is evenly distributed, honesty not infrequently prevails.

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

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

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

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
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
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
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
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
That's why I don't very often drink, or even smoke. I want to try cocaine, though because that's suppose to sharpen the brain, isn't it?

Dashiell Hammett
Listen, darling, tomorrow I'll buy you a whole lot of detective stories, but don't worry your pretty little head over mysteries tonight.

Dashiell Hammett