“Brigid O'Shaughnessy: I haven't lived a good life. I've been bad, worse than you could know. Sam Spade You know, that's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd nev...”

“Yes,' Spade growled. 'And when you're slapped you'll take it and like it.' He released Cairo's wrist and with a thick open hand struck the side of his face three times savagely.”

“He looked rather pleasantly, like a blonde satan.”

“If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors or mounted pol...”

“I found I was repeating myself. It is the beginning of the end when you discover you have style.”

“I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.”

“In my opinion, it was chiefly owing to their deep contemplation in their silent retreats in the days of youth that the old Indian orators acquired the habit of carefully arranging their thoughts.Th...”

“To talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.”

“Anything you say at this point cannot be trusted. You know I am well and truly angry, so you are in the grip of fear. This means I cannot trust any word you say, as it comes from fear. You are clev...”

“If someone were to harm my family or a friend or somebody I love, I would eat them. I might end up in jail for 500 years, but I would eat them.”

“Sometimes you know you've got a chance with a girl because she wants to fight with you. If the world wasn't so messed up, it wouldn't be like that. If the world was normal, a girl being nice to you...”

“Smirking, he says, "Whatever spell you just tried to cast on me, it didn't work, so I think you need to go back to Hogwarts.”