Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers) You're not
very tall, are you?
Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) Well, I, uh, I try to be.
General Sternwood (Charles Waldron) How do
you like your brandy, sir?
Marlowe In a glass.
Sternwood Do you like orchids?
Marlowe Not particularly.
Sternwood Ugh. Nasty things. Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, and their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption.
Marlowe Hmm.
Sternwood What does that mean?
Marlowe It means, hmm.
Sternwood 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.
Marlowe 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.
Marlowe She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.
Sternwood I assume they have all the usual vices, besides those they've invented for themselves.
Marlowe Thanks for the drink, General.
Sternwood I enjoyed your drink as much as you did, sir.
Norris (Charles Brown) Are you
attempting to tell me my duties, sir?
Marlowe No, just having fun trying to guess what they are.
Marlowe I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like 'em myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them long winter evenings.
Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall) Do you always
think you can handle people like, uh, trained seals?
Marlowe Uh-huh. I usually get away with it too.
Vivian How nice for you.
Marlowe in a bookstore You do sell books, hmm?
Agnes Lowzier (Sonia Darrin) What do those look
like, grapefruit?
Marlowe Well, from here they look like books.
Vivian 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 the house all evening.
Vivian That bad?
Marlowe Mm-hmm.
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.
Vivian So you do get up. I was beginning to
think perhaps you worked in bed like Marcel Proust.
Marlowe Who's he?
Vivian You wouldn't know him. A French writer.
Marlowe showing her into his office. Come to my boudoir.
Marlowe making a prank call. What can I do for you? I can do what? Where? Oh, no, I wouldn't like that. Neither would my daughter.
Marlowe You wanna tell me now?
Vivian Tell you what?
Marlowe What it is you're trying to find out.
You know, it's a funny thing. You're trying to find out what your father
hired me to find out, and I'm trying to find out why you want to find out.
Vivian You could go on forever, couldn't you?
Anyway it'll give us something to talk about next time we meet.
Marlowe Among other things.
Taxi Driver (Joy Barlowe) If you can use me
again sometime, call this number.
Marlowe Day and night?
Taxi Driver Uh, night's better. I work during the day.
Eddie Mars (John Ridgely) Your story didn't
sound quite right.
Marlowe Oh, that's too bad. You got a better
one?
Mars Maybe I can find one.
Mars Convenient, the door being open when
you didn't have a key, eh?
Marlowe Yeah, wasn't it? By the way, how'd you
happen to have one?
Mars Is that any of your business?
Marlowe I could make it my business.
Mars I could make your business mine.
Marlowe Oh, you wouldn't like it. The pay's too small.
Marlowe My, my, my! Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains! You know, you're the second guy I've met today that seems to think a gat in the hand means the world by the tail.
Marlowe Did I hurt you much, sugar?
Agnes You and every other man I've ever met.
Marlowe How'd you happen to pick out this place?
Vivian Maybe I wanted to hold your hand.
Marlowe Oh, that can be arranged.
Vivian 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 whole 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 I don't know
how, how far you can go.
Vivian A lot depends on who's in the saddle.
Marlowe Oh, Eddie, you don't have anybody
watching me, do you? Tailing me in a gray Plymouth coupé, maybe?
Mars No, why should I?
Marlowe Well, I can't imagine, unless you're
worried about where I am all the time.
Mars I don't like you that well.
Marlowe You the guy that's been tailing me?
Harry Jones (Elisha Cook, Jr.) Yeah, the name's
Jones. Harry Jones. I want to see you.
Marlowe Swell. Did you want to see those guys
jump me?
Jones I didn't care one way or the other.
Marlowe You could've yelled for help.
Jones If a guy's playing a hand, I let him play
it. I'm no kibitzer.
Marlowe You got brains.
Agnes Is Harry there?
Marlowe Yeah, yeah, he's here.
Agnes Put him on, will you?
Marlowe He can't talk to you.
Agnes Why?
Marlowe Because he's dead.
Agnes Well, so long, copper. Wish me luck. I got
a raw deal.
Marlowe Yeah, your kind always does.
Vivian Why did you have to go on?
Marlowe Too many people told me to stop.
Marlowe 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?
Marlowe Let me do the talking, angel. I don't know yet what I'm going to tell them. It'll be pretty close to the truth.
Vivian You've forgotten one thing: me.
Marlowe What's wrong with you?
Vivian Nothing you can't fix.