Big Sleep Quotes

• The Big Sleep' is an unsentimental, surrealist excitement in which most of the men in Hollywood's underworld are murdered and most of the women go for an honest but not unwilling private sleuth (Humphrey Bogart).

  Manny Farber

  Sleep, Men, Hollywood

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.562, Library of America

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark little clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.

  Raymond Chandler

  Morning, Rain, Dark

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.8, Modern Library

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• She lowered her lashes until they almost cuddled her cheeks and slowly raised them again, like a theatre curtain. I was to get to know that trick. That was supposed to make me roll over on my back with all four paws in the air.

  Raymond Chandler

  Air, Theatre, Four

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Big Sleep: A Novel”, p.5, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  40 Copy quote

  Show source

• I sat down on the edge of a deep soft chair and looked at Mrs Regan. She was worth a stare. She was trouble.

  Raymond Chandler

  Trouble, Chairs, Regan

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.24, Modern Library

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.

  Raymond Chandler

  Heart, Men, Broken

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Big Sleep: A Novel”, p.42, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was.

  Raymond Chandler

  Sleep, Caring, Oil And Water

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Big Sleep: A Novel”, p.230, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• You like orchids?... Nasty things. Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption.

  William Faulkner

  Sleep, Men, Orchids

  66 Copy quote

• I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. They’re pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings.

  Raymond Chandler

  Winter, Grieving, Long

  The Big Sleep ch. 3 (1939)

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn't owe too much money.

  Raymond Chandler

  Men, Too Much, Wells

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.55, Modern Library

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy.

  Raymond Chandler

  Nice, Men, Vices

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.15, Modern Library

  7 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains!

  Humphrey Bogart

  Sleep, Gun, Brain

  "Fictional character: Philip Marlowe". "The Big Sleep", www.imdb.com. August 22, 1946.

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.

  Raymond Chandler

  Two, People, Attention

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Big Sleep: A Novel”, p.34, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tall, aren't you?" she said. "I didn't mean to be." Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her.

  Raymond Chandler

  Mean, Eye, Thinking

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Big Sleep: A Novel”, p.5, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I was neat, clean, shaved and sober and I didn't care who knew it.

  Raymond Chandler

  Care, Sober, Clean

  The Big Sleep (1939) ch. 1

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.

  Raymond Chandler

  Nice, Habit, Neighborhood

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.43, Modern Library

  62 Copy quote

  Show source

• The plants filled the place, a forest of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like the newly washed fingers of dead men.

  Raymond Chandler

  Men, Forests, Nasty

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.13, Modern Library

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. I put it back where I had moved it from. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights.

  Raymond Chandler

  Moving, Knights, Games

  Raymond Chandler (2011). “The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely”, p.182, Modern Library

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form inself on the edge of consciousness.

  Raymond Chandler

  Fog, Trying, Sound

  raymond chandler (1966). “the big sleep”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• As honest as you could expect a man to be in a world where it's out of style.

  Raymond Chandler

  Men, Style, Going Out

  "The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words".

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't mind your showing me your legs. They're very swell legs and it's a pleasure to make their acquaintance. I don't mind if you don't like my manners. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings. But don't waste your time trying to cross-examine me.

  Raymond Chandler

  Winter, Night, Grieving

  "The Big Sleep". Book by Raymond Chandler, ch. 3, 1939.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• You can have a hangover from other things than alcohol. I had one from women.

  Raymond Chandler

  Hangover, Alcohol

  Raymond Chandler (2014). “The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words”, p.113, Vintage

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Shake your business up and pour it. I haven't got all day.

  Raymond Chandler

  Shakes

  "The Big Sleep and Other Novels".

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Big Sleep' would have been a more effective study of nightmarish existence had the detective been more complicated and had more curiosity been shown about his sweetheart's relation to the crime.

  Manny Farber

  Sleep, Curiosity, Detectives

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.564, Library of America

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Death. To die. To expire. To pass on. To perish. To peg out. To push up daisies. To push up posies. To become extinct. Curtains, deceased, Demised, departed And defunct. Dead as a doornail. Dead as a herring. Dead as a mutton. Dead as nits. The last breath. Paying a debt to nature. The big sleep. God's way of saying, "Slow down."

  Patch Adams

  Sleep, Departed, Debt

  "Fictional character: Hunter Patch Adams". "Patch Adams", www.imdb.com. 1998.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• During Mr. Reagan's trip to Europe...members of the traveling press corps watched him doze off so many times--during speeches by French President Francois Mitterrand and Italian President Alessandro Pertini, as well as during a one-on-one audience with the Pope--that they privately christened the trip 'The Big Sleep.'

  Mark Hertsgaard

  Sleep, Italian, Europe

  "On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency". Book by Mark Hertsgaard, 1988.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source