When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
Interpretation
In uncertain situations, introducing an element of danger can clarify intentions.
Raymond Chandler's quote suggests that when faced with uncertainty, the presence of a decisive and potentially threatening force can help to illuminate the reality of a situation. The notion encapsulates the idea that sometimes, extreme actions can lead to the resolution of doubts or conflicts, forcing characters to reveal their true selves or intentions when confronted with imminent danger.
In practice
This quote can be used in a suspense thriller film discussion.
Undoubtedly the stories about them [hard-boiled detectives] had a fantastic element. Such things happened, but not so rapidly, nor to so close-knit a group of people, nor within so narrow a frame of logic. This was inevitable because the demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
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.
Organized crime is the dirty side of the sharp dollar.
The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.
If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.
We have the whitest kitchens and the most shining bathrooms in the world. But in the lovely white kitchen the average [person] canβt produce a meal fit to eat, and the lovely shining bathroom is mostly a receptacle for deodorants, laxatives, sleeping pills, and the products of that confidence racket called the cosmetic industry. We make the finest packages in the world, Mr Marlowe. The stuff inside is mostly junk." β
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.
When I go out of the house for a walk, uncertain as yet whither I will bend my steps, [I] submit myself to my instinct to decide for me.
Religion is a very scary thing, because a pastor is in a position of power. And if you use that power badly, you ruin people's lives, and you ruin your own life.
For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
Christianity remains to this day the greatest misfortune of humanity.
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