The Big Sleep quotes

View Quote Marlowe: [on the phone] I've got some cold meats set out that might interest ya.
Ohls: What are ya talkin' about?
Marlowe: Did you boys find a gun on Owen Taylor when they fished him out of the drink last night?...If they did, it had three empty shells in it...You come up to 7244 Laverne Terrace off Laurel Canyon Road and I'll show you where the slugs went.

View Quote Vivian: Tell me: What do you usually do when you're not working?
Marlowe: Oh, play the horses, fool around.
Vivian: No women?
Marlowe: I'm generally working on something most of the time.
Vivian: Could that be stretched to include me?
Marlowe: Well I like you. I've told you that before.
Vivian: I like hearing you say it. But you didn't do much about it.
Marlowe: Well, neither did you.
Vivian: Well, speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them work out a little first, see if they're front-runners or come from behind, find out what their hole-card is. What makes them run.
Marlowe: Find out mine?
Vivian: I think so.
Marlowe: Go ahead.
Vivian: I'd say you don't like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a lead, take a little breather in the backstretch, and then come home free.
Marlowe: You don't like to be rated yourself.
Vivian: I haven't met anyone yet that can do it. Any suggestions?
Marlowe: Well, I can't tell till I've seen you over a distance of ground. You've got a touch of class, but, uh...I don't know how - how far you can go.
Vivian: A lot depends on who's in the saddle. Go ahead Marlowe, I like the way you work. In case you don't know it, you're doing all right.
Marlowe: There's one thing I can't figure out.
Vivian: What makes me run?
Marlowe: Uh-huh.
Vivian: I'll give you a little hint. Sugar won't work. It's been tried.
Marlowe: What did you try it on me for? Who told you to sugar me off this case? Was it Eddie Mars? All right, don't answer me, but somebody put you up to it and it wasn't your father. He didn't tell you to pay me off, did he?
...
Marlowe: What's Eddie Mars got to do with this case?
Vivian: Nothing. He runs a gambling house. I play horses. I play the wheel.
Marlowe: Playing something else too...Never mind talking. Let me do it. Do you know it was Eddie Mars' blonde wife Sean Regan was supposed to run off with?
Vivian: Who doesn't?
Marlowe: Did you know he owned the house Geiger operated in and he was mixed up in that racket too?
Vivian: No, I don't believe it.
Marlowe: Then why does it bother you so much? What's Eddie Mars got on you? Oh come now, angel, stop shaking. I don't want to hurt you. I'm trying to help ya. Well, you'd better run along, 'cause you made a deal and you're gonna stick to it, right or wrong. We'll take up the question of you and I when the race is over.

View Quote Sternwood: [about his daughters] They're alike only in having the same corrupt blood. Vivian is spoilt, exacting, smart and ruthless. Carmen is still a little child who likes to pull the wings off flies. I assume they have all the usual vices, besides those they've invented for themselves. If I seem a bit cynical as a parent, Mr. Marlowe, it's because my hold on life is too slight to include any Victorian hypocrisy. I need hardly add that any man who has lived as I have and who indulges for the first time in parenthood at my age deserves all he gets.
Marlowe: I guess you want me to take this Geiger off your back. Thanks for the drink, General.
Sternwood: I enjoyed your drink as much as you did, sir.

View Quote Carmen: Can I have my picture now?
Marlowe: No.
Carmen: Can I have my gun back?
Marlowe: Later.
Carmen: You're cute. I like you.
Marlowe: What you see's nothing. I've got a Balinese dancing girl tattooed across my chest.

View Quote Agnes: Well, so long copper. Wish me luck. I got a raw deal.
Marlowe: Your kind always does.

View Quote Vivian: Hello. Police Headquarters, please. Hello, this is Mrs...
Marlowe: [He grabs the phone and stops her call] Hello. What do you want, please?
Police: I don't want a thing.
Marlow: What?
Police: You called me.
Marlowe: I called you? Say, who is this?
Police: This is Sergeant Riley at headquarters.
Marlowe: Sergeant Riley? Well, there isn't any Sergeant Riley here.
Police: I know that! Now look brother...
Marlowe: Wait a minute. You'd better talk to my mother.
Police: I don't want to talk to your mother. Why should I want to talk to your mother...
Vivian: Hello. Who is this?
Police: This is the police.
Vivian: The police! Well, this is no police station.
Police: I know that!
Vivian: Well if you know it, then why don't ya...Look, this is not a police station.
Police: This is silly...
Vivian: What was that you said?...My father should hear this.
Police: I don't want to talk to your father...
Marlowe: Hello. Who is this?
Police: This is the police talking.
Marlowe: Yeah, but she just told you that...
Police: She just rang the police!
Marlowe: Oh, you're the police. Oh, well that's different. What can I do for you?
Police: You can...
Marlowe: I can do what? Where? Oh, no. I wouldn't like that, neither would my daughter. [Hangs up the phone] I hope the sergeant never traces that call.
Vivian: You like to play games, don't you?
Marlowe: Mmm hmm.
Vivian: Why did you stop me phoning?
Marlowe: 'Cause I'm working for your father or because I think I'm beginning to like another one of the Sternwoods.
Vivian: I prefer the second reason.

View Quote Marlowe: By the way, how's Mrs. Mars these days?
Mars: You take chances, Marlowe.
Marlowe: I get paid to.

View Quote Marlowe: She'll be all right in the morning.
Vivian: Did you do this?
Marlowe: That! Oh yes, that's a little special service I always provide all my clients.
Vivian: Including being insolent. Where did you find her?
Marlowe: I didn't find her...
Vivian: Well then, how did you...?
Marlowe: I haven't been here, you haven't seen me, and she hasn't been out of this house all evening.
Vivian: That bad.
Marlowe: Hmm, hmm.
Vivian: Just what did happen, Mr. Marlowe?
Marlowe: You're pretty fond of your sister, aren't you?
Vivian: Yes, I am.
Marlowe: You'd do anything for her, wouldn't you?
Vivian: Anything.
Marlowe: Then drop this whole thing.
Vivian: But I still think I should know what...
Marlowe: Unh, unh. Don't even ask her.
Vivian: She never remembers anyway.
Marlowe: Just what did she forget about Sean Regan?
Vivian: What did she tell you?
Marlowe: Not half as much as you just did. [He grabs her fists that are poised to strike] Take it easy. I don't slap so good around this time of the evening.
Vivian: You go too far, Marlowe.
Marlowe: Those are harsh words to throw at a man, especially when he's walking out of your bedroom.

View Quote Marlowe: What do you think's gonna happen now? Now what are your boys gonna think? What'll they do to the first one that goes out that door? Who's it gonna be Eddie? You or me?
Mars: Now look, Marlowe.
Marlowe: You look at this. What's the matter? Haven't you ever seen a gun before? What do you want me to do? Count three like they do in the movies? That's what Canino said to little Jonesy.
Mars: Now don't go crazy.
Marlowe: And Jonesy took it better than you're taking it.

View Quote Sternwood: You are looking, sir, at a very dull survival of a very gaudy life - crippled, paralyzed in both legs, very little I can eat, and my sleep is so near waking that it's hardly worth the name. I seem to exist largely on heat, like a newborn spider. The orchids are an excuse for the heat. Do you like orchids?
Marlowe: Not particularly.
Sternwood: Nasty things! Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, and their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption.

View Quote Marlowe: I want some information - about Sean Regan.
Mars: I heard you got that already from the Bureau of Missing Persons.
Marlowe: You get around.
Mars: My boys do.
Marlowe: Where is he?
Mars: I haven't any idea.
Marlowe: You didn't bump him off, did ya?
Mars: No. You think I did?
Marlowe: Well, that's what I came up here to ask ya.
Mars: You're kidding.
Marlowe: All right. I'm kidding. You didn't do it yourself and none of your boys are good enough to do it. I used to know Regan.
Mars: I thought you told me you weren't looking for Regan?
Marlowe: I wasn't then. Maybe I just got curious. You see, I finally got it through my thick skull that half the General's worries were that Regan might be mixed up in this blackmail business.
Mars: Well, Sternwood can turn over now and go back to sleep. It was Geiger's own racket. I did some inquiring myself today. When Geiger and Brody got gunned, that washed the whole thing up - that, I'm sure of it.
Marlowe: It's finished then.

View Quote Marlowe: If Eddie Mars' wife gets my car fixed and he finds out what happened, there's gonna be plenty of trouble, and you'll be in it just as much as I will.
Vivian: I don't mind as long as you're around.
Marlowe: I didn't have a chance to thank you for what you did back there. You looked good, awful good. I didn't know they made 'em like that anymore.
Vivian: I guess I'm in love with you.

View Quote Marlowe: How did you happen to pick out this place?
Vivian: Maybe I wanted to hold your hand.
Marlowe: Oh, that can be arranged.

View Quote Sternwood: [about Sean Regan] You knew him too?
Marlowe: Yes, in the old days, when he used to run rum out of Mexico and I was on the other side. We used to swap shots between drinks, or drinks between shots, whichever you like.
Sternwood: My respects to you, sir. Few men ever swapped more than one shot with Sean Regan. He commanded a brigade in the Irish-Republican Army - you knew that.
Marlowe: No I didn't...I know he was a good man at whatever he did. No one was more pleased than I when I heard you had taken him on as your...whatever he was.
Sternwood: My friend, my son almost.

View Quote Marlowe: It won't take 'em long.
Vivian: What are you gonna...?
Marlowe: Wait a minute. Let me do the talking, angel. I don't know yet what I'm gonna tell 'em, but it will be pretty close to the truth. And you'll have to send Carmen away from a lot of things. They have places for that. Maybe they can cure her - it's been done before. And we'll have to tell your father about Regan. I think he can take it.
Vivian: You've forgotten one thing...Me.
Marlowe: [pulling her to him] What's wrong with you?
Vivian: Nothing you can't fix.