Like Love

           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.

The Long Goodbye
Raymond Chandler
1953

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Deviantart

But Never Quite

I see (Marlowe) always in a lonely street, in lonely rooms, puzzled but never quite defeated.

Raymond Chandler

Letter to Maurice Guinness 

Feb 21st 1959

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reblogged via
californiababylon.tumblr.com

The Trap You Set

Never Quite Defeated

       Marlowe's type shouldn't get married. Because he is a lonely man, a poor man, a dangerous man and yet a sympathetic man, and somehow none of this goes with marriage. I think he will always have a fairly shabby office, a lonely house, a number of affairs, but no permanent connection ......... I see him always in a lonely street, in lonely rooms, puzzled but never quite defeated.

Raymond Chandler
Letter to a friend - 21st Feb 1959
(Chandler Died 26th March 1959)

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James Dietz

Fascinated By the Sound

          He learned a new craft in his 40's, he was past 50 when his first novel was published. And when his books sold, and Hollywood held out it's arms, he accepted the embrace but didn't get smothered in it. He remained fascinated by the sound and cadence of words and by the art of putting them together. 

Julian Symons
New York Times
1973

Back Up the Steps

          I watched the cab out of sight. I went back up the steps and into the bedroom and pulled the bed to pieces and remade it. There was a long dark hair on one of the pillows. There was a lump of lead at the pit of my stomach. The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right. To say goodbye is to die a little.

Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye
1953

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Jack Vettriano

Always Something

      There's always something to do if you don't have to work or consider the cost. It's no real fun but the rich don't know that.

The Long Goodbye
Raymond Chandler
1953

You Don't Get Rich

          You don't get rich, you don't often have much fun. Sometimes you get beaten up or shot at or tossed in the jail house. Once in a long while you get dead. Every other month you decide to give it up and find some sensible occupation while you can still walk without shaking your head.

Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye
1953

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Early Raymond Chandler

Long Goodbye

In Some Dim Bar

         I have romantic notions of drinking gimlets with Raymond Chandler, waiting out the Santa Ana winds together in some dim bar.

Megan Abbott
NYT Book Review
2016

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Mike Stewart
Marlowe
                               https://thrillingdetective.com/2018/08/19/raymond-chandler/

More Chandler Covers

Didn't Get Smothered

          In spite of his quirks and crotchets, there was a lot that was admirable about Raymond Chandler, both as man and writer. He learned a new craft in his 40's, he was past 50 when his first novel was published. And when his books sold, and Hollywood held out it's arms, he accepted the embrace but didn't get smothered in it. He remained fascinated by the sound and cadence of words and by the art of putting them together. He took his work seriously and helped to make other people take it seriously too.

The Case of Raymond Chandler
Julian Symons
New York Times
1973

It Was Too Early

            I drove back to Hollywood feeling like a short length of chewed string. It was too early to eat, and too hot. I turned on the fan in my office. It didn't make the air any cooler, just a little more lively.

Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye
1953

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Aghris DeviantArt

Somebody is Running

        When i got home i mixed a stiff one and stood by the open window in the living room and sipped it and listened to the groundswell of traffic on Laurel Canyon Boulevard and looked at the glare of the big angry city hanging over the shoulder of the hills through which the boulevard had been cut. Far off the banshee wail of police or fire sirens rose and fell, never for very long completely silent. Twenty four hours a day somebody is running, somebody else is trying to catch him. Out there in the night of a thousand crimes, people were dying, being maimed, cut by flying glass, crushed against steering wheels or under heavy tires.

Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye
1953

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Goodbye_(novel)

The Long Goodbye

In Lonely Rooms

         Chandler wrote a month before his death that he always saw him (Marlowe) " in a lonely street, in lonely rooms, puzzled but never quite defeated".

excerpt from
A Mysterious Something in the Light
Jake-Weird.blogspot.com
2012

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Manuel Perez

Look You Over

The Long Goodbye
Raymond Chandler
1952

Spending Too Much

Never Had Any

           There's always something to do if you don't have to work or consider the cost. It's no real fun but the rich don't know that. They never had any. They never want anything very hard except maybe somebody else's wife and that's a pretty pale desire compared with the way a plumber's wife wants new curtains for the living room.

The Long Goodbye
Raymond Chandler
1953

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Marjory Collins
                                      https://fragmentsofnoirblog.tumblr.com/archive

They Got Silent

        He turned and walked across the floor and out. I watched the door close. I listened to his steps going away down the imitation marble corridor. After a while they got faint, then they got silent. I kept listening anyway.

The Long Goodbye
Raymond Chandler
1953