Don't ever write anything you don't like yourself and if you do like it, don't take anyone's advice about changing it. They just don't know..

The making of a picture ought surely to be a rather fascinating adventure. It is not; it is an endless contention of tawdry egos, some of them powerf….

Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but p….

Some are able and humane men and some are low-grade individuals with the morals of a goat, the artistic integrity of a slot machine, and the manners ….

A really good detective never gets married..

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 ju….

To say goodbye is to die a little..

Dashiell Hammett took murder out of theVenetian vase and dropped it into the alley..

Common sense is the guy who tells you that you ought to have had your brakes relined last week before you smashed a front end this week. Common sense….

A city with all the personality of a paper cup. (On Los Angeles).

The agent never receipts his bill, puts his hat on and bows himself out. He stays around forever, not only for as long as you can write anything that….

She was the music heard faintly on the edge of sound..

I certainly admire people who do things..

You're broke, eh?" I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate..

LA doesn't have the heart of a paper cup..

An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence..

In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, a….

Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off..

She had eyes like strange sins..

I said something which gave you to think I hated cats. But gad, sir, I am one of the most fanatical cat lovers in the business. If you hate them, I m….

In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption..