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

“If the Old Man said something was so, then it probably was, because he was one of these cautious babies who'll look out the window at a cloudburst and say, "It seems to be raining," on the off-chance that somebody's pouring water off the roof.”

“He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him see the works.”

“Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v ofhis mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes werehorizontal. The V motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creasesabove a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down--from high flat temples--in a point onhis forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond Satan.”

“I know a man who once stole a Ferris-wheel”

“I once knew a man who stole a Ferris Wheel...”

“It's tough, him getting it like that. Miles had his faults same as the rest of us, but I guess he must've had some good points too.”