- Philip Marlowe: [after beating up two thugs] Fuck it!
- [grabs a chair and hits one of them in the head]
- Philip Marlowe: I'm too old for this shit!
- Pat the Bartender: What's your trouble gents, money or women?
- Philip Marlowe: Both, with a complication of thirst.
- Philip Marlowe: Does Mr. Peterson get money from his profession, or does he just profess his profession?
- Clare Cavendish: You seem to assumed that I was involved with someone unsuitable.
- Philip Marlowe: Yes. Unless you were unsuitable for him.
- Old Man: A pair of wetbacks showed up last week, and they was all gussied up, but a beaner in a suit and fancy necktie, it's still a beaner, right?
- Philip Marlowe: No, sometimes he's the king of Spain.
- Old Man: King of Spain don't ride around in no Lincoln with a Mexican re-spray.
- Cedric: A car is more than a vehicle, Mr. Hendricks used to tell me. It's a sealed confessional. A repository of secrets. And this city, devoted as it is to the internal combustion engine, is a city of motorized secrets.
- Clare Cavendish: I don't care that I'm less than you think I am. I'm always less than people think I am. You're one of those people who's just lucky to be more than we think you are.
- Philip Marlowe: May I ask, is your husband homosexual?
- Clare Cavendish: No. He isn't remotely that interesting. He likes polo, alcohol, waitresses and my money.
- Philip Marlowe: Did you conduct your affair with Mr. Peterson at the club?
- Clare Cavendish: We weren't meeting in the horse sheds, Mr. Marlowe.
- The Ambassador: You've a name?
- Philip Marlowe: Marlowe.
- The Ambassador: This is hell, nor am I out of it.
- Philip Marlowe: That was his one good line.
- The Ambassador: You don't think he was Shakespeare.
- Philip Marlowe: Neither did he.
- Det. Joe Green: We're in the real world here. You understand a real world. Sometimes justice is blind, sometimes justice doesn't give a shit and might be right.
- Dorothy Quincannon: You weren't looking for pearls.
- Philip Marlowe: No, I throw them before swine, it's a habit of mine.
- Clare Cavendish: I just wanted you to start at the beginning. Begin at the beginning, that's what you're supposed to do, right?
- Det. Joe Green: So who's the mystery broad you're working for? HIs sister?
- Philip Marlowe: Tell me about his sister.
- Det. Joe Green: Maybe she identified him, maybe she didn't. You tell me about his sister. I got my own sister, you can stick his sister up your ass.
- Floyd Hanson: Goodbye, Mr. Marlowe. I'm sorry that it was ultimately uninteresting to talk to you. Ah, but I do like this thing that you have about not being afraid, when you should be.
- Det. Joe Green: What's going on these days Patrick, you - you married or happy?
- Pat the Bartender: At least my laundry's done.
- Floyd Hanson: Once, after an artillery strike, I found a friend's tooth in my whiskey glass. I drank the whiskey.
- Philip Marlowe: You're a terrible man.
- Floyd Hanson: He was dead, and I needed the whiskey.
- Dorothy Quincannon: So you see, Mr. Marlowe, my daughter wasn't the only one spreading her legs for him.
- Dorothy Quincannon: You're a proud stubborn man, Mr. Marlowe.
- Philip Marlowe: I'm just an ordinary Joe trying to earn a buck and stay out of jail.
- Amanda Toxteth: That must be exciting, being a detective.
- Philip Marlowe: I can hardly contain myself.
- Amanda Toxteth: Oh, well, don't contain yourself on my account.
- Philip Marlowe: Acting seems to be going well, Miss Toxteth.
- Amanda Toxteth: You're sweet. Actually, my mother says I should fuck more producers. What do you think?
- Philip Marlowe: Well, what was the words you wanted?
- Lou Hendricks: I can only hope it is not a past participle.
- Amanda Toxteth: Nico liked the conquest, not the women. He'd hardly touch you after he'd had you. That's a particular kind of man. Some girls say handsome men are cold, that's normally just what you say to ugly men to make them feel better, but - Nico *was* cold. Nico had girlfriends, but he didn't have girls who were friends.
- Lynn Peterson: The cop tried to make me in the hallway. Probably has a daughter my age. It's funny, whatever you do, there is always someone trying to make ya.
- Philip Marlowe: Who was chasing Peterson's sister?
- Lou Hendricks: Two beaners, I hear. Maladroits from sunnier climes, the land of banana and tarantula, who were also, quite separately, and I should like you to notice that, looking for her brother.
- Lou Hendricks: He used to run errands for me, down in the land of the sombrero, the serape, and the mule. His Spanish was good. He was dark in a Latin lover kind of way. He was useful in Mexico.
- Clare Cavendish: Maybe she's just afraid that you'll make love to me before you find out just how terrible I am.
- Philip Marlowe: That's a terrible idea.
- Clare Cavendish: Why?
- Philip Marlowe: Why? Because I'm in your employ. Because you're half my age. Because you're - so beautiful, I'd lose my bearings.
- Clare Cavendish: You're a terrible dancer.
- Philip Marlowe: I'm a worse lover.
- Clare Cavendish: You expect me to believe that?
- Clare Cavendish: A puzzle has many pieces. I don't know exactly what you're going to find. You might find a dragon, have to kill it.
- Det. Bernie Ohls: I want you to go after these fucks, like a rat terrier in a closet. I don't want to know anything about it.
- [last lines]
- Cedric: We've all done bad things, Mr. Marlowe.
- Philip Marlowe: That gun is a memento of one very bad thing.
- Cedric: So, you mean I can't shoot anyone with it?
- Philip Marlowe: Uh-uh. Use your Tommy gun for that.
- Cedric: That's always an option.
- Det. Bernie Ohls: What do you think I'll find inside?
- Philip Marlowe: A bust of Nefertiti, the Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon.
- Det. Bernie Ohls: Nothing more significant?
- Philip Marlowe: What more could you want?
- Cedric: Mr. Hendricks, that's not fair.
- Lou Hendricks: As a progeny of sharecroppers, Cedric, you should know - life isn't fair!