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 Agnes: That's what I always draw. Never once a man who's smart all the way around the course. Never once.
Marlowe: Did I hurt you much, sugar?
Agnes: You and every other man I've ever met.

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

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 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: 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 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 [to Vivian] Look angel, I'm tired. My jaw hurts and my ribs ache. I killed a man back there and I had to stand by when a harmless little guy was killed. Do you think I can tell them all that happened because Geiger tried to throw a loop over Carmen? If I tell them that, they'll swarm over your house so fast that every closet you and your family have been in for the last six years will look like a police convention. They'll all ask the same question - where's Sean Regan? Why did Eddie Mars hide his wife to make it look like she ran off with Regan? Why did you hide out there? You're playing with dynamite.