Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Chandlerisms: A collection of similes, one-liners, and turns of phrase written by Raymond Chandler
Chandlerisms ^ | Raymond Chandler

Posted on 12/30/2002 7:54:43 PM PST by PJ-Comix

"Then her hands dropped and jerked at something and the robe she was wearing came open and underneath it she was as naked as September Morn but a darn sight less coy."--The Long Good-bye (Chapter 29)


"Across the street somebody had delirium tremens in the front yard and a mixed quartet tore what was left of the night into small strips and did what they could to make the strips miserable. While this was going on the exotic brunette didn't move more that one eyelash."--"Red Wind" (Section 5)


"To say she had a face that would have stopped a clock would have been to insult her.It would have stopped a runaway horse."--The Little Sister


"I felt like an amputated leg." -- "Trouble Is My Business" (Section 4)


"The corridor which led to it had a smell of old carpet and furniture oil and the drab anonymity of a thousand shabby lives"--The Little Sister (Chapter 9)


"She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket"--Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 18)


"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."--"The Simple Art of Murder" (essay)


"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun." Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 34)


"I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it." -- The Big Sleep (Chapter 1)


"San Diego? One of the most beautiful harbors in the world and nothing in it but navy and a few fishing boats. At night it is fairyland. The swell is as gentle as an old lady singing hymns. But Marlowe has to get home and count the spoons." -- The Long Goodbye (Chapter 6)


""She's a charming middle age lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she's washed her hair since Coolidge's second term, I'll eat my spare tire, rim and all." " -- Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 6)


"A white night for me is as rare as a fat postman." -- The Long Goodbye (Chapter 12)


"The General spoke again, slowly, using his strength as carefully as an out-of-work show-girl uses her last good pair of stockings." -- The Big Sleep (Chapter 2)


"I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it." -- The Big Sleep (Chapter 1)


"There was a desert winf blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your sking itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."-- "Red Wind" (opening paragraph)


""His smile was as stiff as a frozen fish." -- "The Man Who Liked Dogs"


"I belonged in Idle Valley like a pearl onion on a banana split."--The Long Good-bye (Chapter 13)


"Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food."--Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 1)


"What did it matter where you lay once you were dead?  In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill.  You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that.  Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you.  You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell.  Me, I was part of the nastiness now."--The Big Sleep (Chapter 32)


"Her smile was as faint as a fat lady at a fireman's ball."--High Window (Chapter 3)


"At three A.M. I was walking the floor listening to Khachaturyan working in a tractor factory.  He called it a violin concerto.  I called it a loose fan belt and the hell with it."--The Long Good-bye (Chapter 12)


"She opened a mouth like a firebucket and laughed.  That terminated my interest in her.  I couldn't hear the laugh but the hole in her face when she unzippered her teeth was all I needed."--The Long Good-bye (Chapter 13)


"I walked back through the arch and started up the steps.  It was a nice walk if you liked grunting.  There were two hundred and eighty steps up to Cabrillo Street.  They were drifted over with windblown sand and the handrail was as cold and wet as a toad's belly."--Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 8)


"The walls here are as thin as a hoofer's wallet."--Playback (Chapter 5)


"The voice got as cool as a cafeteria dinner."--Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 15)


"The kid's face had as much expression as a cut of round steak and was about the same color."--"Red Wind"


"If you don't leave, I'll get somebody who will." -- Chandler's notebooks


"One time in Leavenworth, just one time in all those years, Wally Sype wrapped himself around a can of white shellac and got as tight as a fat lady's girdle."--"Goldfish"


"Tasteless as a roadhouse blonde."--"Spanish Blood"


"From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class.  From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away."--The High Window (Chapter 5)


"You boys are as cute as a couple of lost golf balls . . . how in the world do you do it?"--The High Window (Chapter 23)


"She was as cute as a washtub." -- Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 5)


"The house itself was not so much. It was smaller than Buckingham Palace, rather gray for California, and probably had fewer windows than the Chrysler Building. I sneaked over to the side entrance and pressed a bell and somewhere a set of chimes made a deep mellow sound like church bells. A man in a striped vest and gilt buttons opened the door, bowed, took my hat and was through for the day."-- Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 18)

"I sat beside her on the yellow leather chesterfield. 'Aren't you a pretty fast worker?' she asked quietly. I didn't answer her.
'Do you do much of this sort of thing?' she asked with a sidelong look.
'Practically none. I'm a Tibetan monk, in my spare time.'
'Only you don't have any spare time.'""--Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 18)


"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window."--Farewell, My Lovely (Chapter 13)


"I called him from a phone booth. The voice that answered was fat. It wheezed softly, like the voice of a man who had just won a pie-eating contest."--"Trouble Is My Business" (Section 2)


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: philipmarlowe; raymondchandler
If you aren't familiar with Raymond Chandler, here are a few quotes by him. No author could handle American colloquialisms like Raymond Chandler. BTW, a couple of Chandler's short stories ("Trouble Is My Business" and "Red Wind") are the next Freeper Reading Club assignment. Optional are any of the other works of Chandler you want to read. If you want to join the Freeper Reading Club so you can get in on the Raymond Chandler Discussion due on Februrary 24, Freepmail me and I'll put you on the Ping List.
1 posted on 12/30/2002 7:54:43 PM PST by PJ-Comix
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
awesome. sign me up.
2 posted on 12/30/2002 8:05:59 PM PST by Temple Drake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
Raymond Chandler bump!

A lot of these quotes sound cliched now, but that's only because the genre he created has become part of the American idiom. It's kind of like the student who said he didn't like Hamlet because it was filled with so many cliches.

You found some unusual sources. Chandler wasn't very prolific. I don't think I've read these short stories.

BTW, are you also a fan of "The Singing Detective"?
3 posted on 12/30/2002 8:10:06 PM PST by Maximilian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
Didn't he also have one about a broad that would
make a bishop kick out a stained glass window?
4 posted on 12/30/2002 8:17:52 PM PST by APBaer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
bump
5 posted on 12/30/2002 8:20:51 PM PST by octobersky
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
Not bad since he started writing as a British-schooled poet.

I am currently re-reading the Chandler Novels again. (Next is Hammet then the complete Perry Masons.)
6 posted on 12/30/2002 8:32:01 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Maximilian
BTW, are you also a fan of "The Singing Detective"?

Marlowe Phillips? Yup.

7 posted on 12/30/2002 8:48:37 PM PST by PJ-Comix
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
Here's more of that wonderful description from Farewell My Lovely:
“She reached into her bag and slid a photograph across the desk, a five-by-three glazed still.

“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window. She was wearing street clothes that looked black and white, and a hat to match and she was a little haughty, but not too much. Whatever you needed, wherever you happened to be—she had it.”

And here's an equally wonderful exerpt from the same wonderful novel:
“The man in the back seat made a sudden flashing movement that I sensed rather than saw. A pool of darkness opened at my feet and was far, far deeper than the blackest night.

“I dived into it. It had no bottom.”

And these too:
“She hung up, leaving me with a curious feeling of having talked to somebody that didn’t exist.”

“Proof,” I said, “is always a relative thing. It’s an overwhelming balance of probabilities.”

I love Raymond Chandler.
8 posted on 12/30/2002 8:59:29 PM PST by Savage Beast
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
I also love Jane Austin.
9 posted on 12/30/2002 9:13:43 PM PST by Savage Beast
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: APBaer
Didn't he also have one about a broad that would make a bishop kick out a stained glass window?

See the next to the last one in the original post...

10 posted on 12/30/2002 9:14:56 PM PST by Dan Day
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
You see, I wanted to be a detective too. It only took brains, courage, and a gun...and I had the gun. - My Favorite Brunette
11 posted on 12/30/2002 9:19:20 PM PST by jordan8
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jordan8
Ha! Bob Hope Bump!
12 posted on 12/30/2002 9:36:51 PM PST by JennysCool
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
A great collection of quotes ..... I'd join the club but will be away when the discussion starts ..... Although he didn't have Chandler's command of the language, I also really enjoyed Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels ..... the sexiest descriptions of women that never ever were foul..... but really gave one's imagination a thorough workout ......

Regards

13 posted on 12/30/2002 9:59:36 PM PST by Little John
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Little John
Although he didn't have Chandler's command of the language, I also really enjoyed Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels ..... the sexiest descriptions of women that never ever were foul..... but really gave one's imagination a thorough workout ......

I might be assigning a Spillane book sometime this summer. BTW, Mickey Spillane NEVER did any re-writing of his stories. The first draft was also the last draft. He always took almost exactly one month to type out his novels (no rewriting). One reason why Spillanes Mike Hammer series was so good is that Spillane had (to put it gently) some mental health issues and this was reflected in the unbalanced mental state of his Mike Hammer character. For a seven year period, Spillane was in the Jehovas Witnesses and his writing tanked. Then when he (sort of) left that organization, his Mike Hammer novels returned full force again.

I'm a big Spillane fan. Also Spillane is so politically incorrect that he would consider most Freepers to be commie-libs. This is why I HATED the Mike Hammer TV series. They eliminated the way Mike Hammer would go "kill crazy" when he even thought he saw a commie. I wish that someday somebody would do an ACCURATE movie based on a Mike Hammer book.

p.s. Ayn Rand was a HUGE Mickey Spillane fan.

14 posted on 12/31/2002 6:13:13 AM PST by PJ-Comix
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
"Just-read-Trouble-Is-My-Business" bump!

P.J., I received from Amazon.com a collection of all of Raymond Chandler's short stories. Just read Trouble Is My Business and it was a fantastic read! I will now read several more stories in preparation for your discussion thread of his works later on this month.

I hope that other Freepers are doing the same as this is great writing. I'll save my comments for the discussion but just want to mention that the style of writing reminds me of the old Steve Martin movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. It didn't do too well at the box office but it was one of my favorite Steve Martin films. Obvious the movie is a takeoff on the genre, but now I know where the screenwriters got most of their ideas!

15 posted on 02/09/2003 12:08:14 PM PST by SamAdams76 ('Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76
P.J., I received from Amazon.com a collection of all of Raymond Chandler's short stories. Just read Trouble Is My Business and it was a fantastic read!

The script of what is considered the FIRST film noir movie, Double Indemnity, was written by Chandler.

16 posted on 02/09/2003 8:55:15 PM PST by PJ-Comix (Redundancy Can Be Quite Catchy As Well As Contagious)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
Chandler's great!

I also like John MacDonald's Travis Mcgee novels. It always amazed me to see him spend pages of character development, only to eliminate the character off-screen with a quick violent death. It always made you feel like the character's death was such a waste.

Which, after all, aren't all undeserved murders in reality?

17 posted on 02/09/2003 9:08:20 PM PST by Jonah Hex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson