“He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.”
– Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely
“He snorted and hit me in the solar plexus. I bent over and took hold of the room with both hands and spun it. When I had it nicely spinning I gave it a full swing and hit myself on the back of the head with the floor.”
– Raymond Chandler, Pearls Are a Nuisance
“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. I put them on and went out of the room.”
– Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely
And perhaps fans’ favorite opening paragraph:
“There was a desert wind 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 skin 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.””There was a desert wind 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 skin 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.”
– Raymond Chandler, Red Wind
Cartoonist Bill Griffith takes on Raymond Chandler in “Pulp Faction,” in today’s Zippy the Pinhead comic strip.
Note of interest: Zippy first appeared in Real Pulp Comics #1 (1971).
“…had a face like a collapsed lung.” “The wire recorder made a sound like two pansies fighting over a piece of silk.”
Just sorry I didn’t have time to reread Chandler’s whole backlist to identify which books those two quotes came from.