Raymond Chandler Quotes

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
Raymond Chandler

Attitude, Motivation, Ability

Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off.
Raymond Chandler

Love, Girl, After

From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.
Raymond Chandler

Made, Away, She

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

Attitude, Business, Integrity

Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks and has nothing to say.
Raymond Chandler

Art, End, Nothing

I knew one thing: as soon as anyone said you didn't need a gun, you'd better take one along that worked.
Raymond Chandler

Said, Gun, Anyone

The law isn't justice. It's a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.
Raymond Chandler

Justice, May, Law

I think a man ought to get drunk at least twice a year just on principle, so he won't let himself get snotty about it.
Raymond Chandler

Drunk, Year, Himself

Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.
Raymond Chandler

Human, Find, Outside

It is not a fragrant world.
Raymond Chandler

Society, Fragrant

Most critical writing is drivel and half of it is dishonest. It is a short cut to oblivion, anyway. Thinking in terms of ideas destroys the power to think in terms of emotions and sensations.
Raymond Chandler

Power, Writing, Thinking

A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.
Raymond Chandler

Good, Cannot, Story

When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
Raymond Chandler

Doubt, Through, Door

A really good detective never gets married.
Raymond Chandler

Good, Married, Detective

Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic.
Raymond Chandler

Good, Bad, Writing

I do a great deal of research - particularly in the apartments of tall blondes.
Raymond Chandler

Great, Research, Deal

She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.
Raymond Chandler

Smile, She, Gave

The more you reason the less you create.
Raymond Chandler

Reason, Less, Create

When I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split.
Raymond Chandler

God, Stay, Split

The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement.
Raymond Chandler

Challenge, Natural, Half

An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.
Raymond Chandler

Age, Poetry, Literature

At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.
Raymond Chandler

Law, Once, Half

Chess is the most elaborate waste of human intelligence outside of an advertising agency.
Raymond Chandler

Human, Outside, Waste

He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.
Raymond Chandler

Food, Angel, Looked

I certainly admire people who do things.
Raymond Chandler

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Writer

Born: July 23, 1888

Died: March 26, 1959

Links

Find on Amazon: Raymond Chandler

Cite this Page: Citation

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