Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammettwas an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, screenwriter, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, and the Continental Op...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth27 May 1894
CitySt Marys County, MD
CountryUnited States of America
believe mean two
We didn't exactly believe your story.' Then --?' 'We believed your two hundred dollars.' 'You mean --' She seemed not to know what he meant. 'I mean that you paid us more than if you'd been telling the truth,' he explained blandly, 'and enough more to make it all right.
suicide giving-up writing
When you write, you want fame, fortune and personal satisfaction. You want to write what you want to write and feel it's good, and you want this to go on for hundreds of years. You're not likely ever to get all these things, and you're not likely to give up writing and commit suicide if you don't, but that is -- and should be -- your goal. Anything else is kind of piddling.
hands cairo faces
Yes,' Spade growled. 'And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it.' He released Cairo's wrist and with a thick open hand struck the side of his face three times savagely.
men gun necks
Who shot him? I asked. The grey man scratched the back of his neck and said: Somebody with a gun.
thinking dope wells
With what dope I got I think it fills me in pretty well.
drinking men doe
I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink to much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does.
long tears policemen
Listen, Dundy, it's been a long time since I burst into tears because a policeman didn't like me.
red ships firsts
I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit.
crooks noir sam-spade
The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.
brother kids hog
I haven't laughed so much over anything since the hogs ate my kid brother.
men organization differences
When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. Then it happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around-bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere. Sam Spade
son wells falcon
I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon. (Kasper Gutman)
talking practice falcon
Talking is something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice.
eye hair yellow
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.