Continental Op Quotes

Who shot him? I asked. The grey man scratched the back of his neck and said: Somebody with a gun.

I haven't laughed so much over anything since the hogs ate my kid brother.

The face she made at me was probably meant for a smile. Whatever it was, it beat me. I was afraid she'd do it again, so I surrendered

Play with murder enough and it gets you one of two ways. It makes you sick, or you get to like it.

To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted.

This damned burg's getting me. If I don't get away soon I'll be going blood-simple like the natives.

So that's the way you scientific detectives work. My god! for a fat, middle-aged, hard-boiled, pig-headed guy, you've got the vaguest way of doing things I ever heard of.

Be still while I get up or I'll make an opening in your head for brains to leak in.

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.

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. I didn't think anything of what he had done to the city's name. Later I heard men who could manage their r's give it the same pronunciation. I still didn't see anything in it but the meaningless sort of humor that used to make richardsnary the thieves' word for dictionary. A few years later I went to Personville and learned better.

He's cute," I said. "Uh-huh," the grey man agreed, "and so's dynamite.

I was two pavements from my destination when somebodey S-s-s-s-s'd at me. I probably didn't jump twenty feet.

He's the guy that the joke was wrote about: 'Is he a criminal lawyer?' 'Yes, very.

I don’t get away soon I’ll be going blood-simple like the natives.

Now I'm going to have my fun. I've got ten thousand dollars of your money to play with. I'm going to use it opening Poisonville up from Adam's apple to ankles.

A bullet kissed a hole in the door-frame close to my noodle.

Emotions are useless during business hours...

he always got a lot of fun of acting like the other half of a half-wit ― Dashiell Hammett, The Dain Curse, ch XX

anybody who started hunting for evidence of insanity in himself would certainly find plenty ― Dashiell Hammett, The Dain Curse, ch 20

Plans are all right sometimes," I said. "And sometimes just stirring things up is all right--if you're tough enough to survive, and keep your eyes open so you'll see what you want when it comes to the top.

Your playmates sent him?” I asked, nodding at the dead man. “I only talked to him with this,” he said, patting the automatic on the bed, “but I reckon they did.” “How did it happen?” “It happened simple enough. I heard the door opening, and I switched on the light, and there he was, and I shot him, and there he is.

You're never satisfied until you've got two buts and an if attached to everything.

Few men get killed. Most of those who meet sudden ends get themselves killed.

you'll have your city back, all nice and clean and ready to go to the dogs again

She jealous?” I asked before he could go on with his shouting. “And if you don’t yell maybe I’ll be able to hear you anyway. My deafness is a lot better since I’ve been eating yeast.

Was she jealous?” “She was,” he said, not yelling now, “and domineering, and spoiled, and suspicious, and greedy, and mean, and unscrupulous, and deceitful, and selfish, and damned bad—altogether damned bad!

You’re old enough to know that everybody except very crazy people and very stupid people suspect themselves now and then – or whenever they happen to think about it – of not being exactly sane. ― Dashiell Hammett, The Dain Curse, ch XIX

I suppose you'll see her. You'll be disappointed at first. Then without being able to say how or when it happened, you'll find you've forgotten your disappointment, and the first thing you know you'll be telling her your life's history, and all your troubles and hopes.

She’s in,” he said when I joined him. “She went up the road, cut across through some bushes, came back to the edge of the cliff, and slid feet-first through a cellar window.” That was nice. The crazier the people you are sleuthing act, as a rule, the nearer you are to an ending of your troubles.

Elihu Willsson opened the meeting. He said things couldn’t go on the way they were going. We were all sensible men, reasonable men, grown men who had seen enough of the world to know that a man couldn’t have everything his own way, no matter who he was. Compromises were things everybody had to make sometimes. To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted. He said he was sure that what we all most wanted now was to stop this insane killing. He said he was sure that everything could be frankly discussed and settled in an hour without turning Personville into a slaughterhouse.

Porky Grout, whose yellowness was notorious from Seattle to San Diego, standing rigidly in the path of a charging metal monster, with an inadequate pistol in each hand. She had done that to Porky Grout—this woman beside me! She had done that to Proky Grout, and he hadn't even been human! A slimy reptile whose highest thought had been a skinful of dope had gone grimly to death that she might get away—she—this woman whose shoulders I had gripped, whose mouth had been close under mine！

I squinted straight ahead into the wind that tore at my hair and face, and the absence of the windshield took my thoughts back to Porky Grout. Porky Grout, whose yellowness was notorious from Seattle to San Diego, standing rigidly in the path of a charging metal monster, with an inadequate pistol in each hand. She had done that to Porky Grout—this woman beside me! She had done that to Proky Grout, and he hadn't even been human! A slimy reptile whose highest thought had been a skinful of dope had gone grimly to death that she might get away—she—this woman whose shoulders I had gripped, whose mouth had been close under mine!

For myself, I counted on coming through all in one piece. Few men get killed. Most of those who meet sudden ends get themselves killed.

Los indicios de chifladura son bien sencillos de encontrar, y cuanto más ahondamos en nosotros mismos, más salen a relucir.

The chief winked at me, an athletic wink in which all his facial muscles took part....