Sorry, I'm just rediscovering one of my favorite writers. "She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket."
In twelve words Chandler just nails it. He was good at that. Here are a few more, for those who love words: "There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous." "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." "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." "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." "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." "It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window." "We sneered at each other across the desk for a moment. He sneered better than I did." "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." "I hung up. It was a step in the right direction, but it didn't go far enough. I ought to have locked the door and hid under the desk." "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." "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." "She jerked away from me like a startled fawn might, if I had a startled fawn and it jerked away from me." "On the dance floor half a dozen couples were throwing themselves around with the reckless abandon of a night watchman with arthritis." "'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." "The minutes went by on toptoe, with their fingers to their lips." "I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard." "The big foreign car drove itself, but I held the wheel for the sake of appearances." "The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back." "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." "Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead." "The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow, I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them."
