She was the music heard faintly on the edge of sound.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that a person can evoke profound feelings and artistic inspiration, even in subtle ways.
Raymond Chandler's quote illustrates the idea that some individuals resonate deeply within us, much like a beautiful melody that lingers in the background. This 'music' represents the powerful emotional impact a person can have—often felt subtly or subtly missed—highlighting the influence and beauty that can be found in profound connections, even when they are not immediately apparent.
In practice
This quote can be used in a creative writing workshop to discuss the impact of subtle inspirations.
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.
When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
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.
To me, Godard did to movies what Bob Dylan did to music: they both revolutionized their forms.
Believing that art is either worth a fortune or worth nothing at all.
I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot.
Music is a gift and a burden I've had since I can remember who I was.
Once I knew that I wanted to be an artist, I had made myself into one. I did not understand that wanting doesn't always lead to action. Many of the women had been raised without the sense that they could mold and shape their own lives, and so, wanting to be an artist (but without the ability to realize their wants) was, for some of them, only an idle fantasy, like wanting to go to the moon.
He stared up at the stars: and it seemed to him then that they were dancers, stately and graceful, performing a dance almost infinite in its complexity.
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