All language begins with speech, and the speech of common men at that, but when it develops to the point of becoming a literary medium it only looks … - Raymond Chandler

"You're broke, eh?"
I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate.

She put a hard-boiled sneer on her face and gave me plenty of time to get used to it

The charged atmosphere made every little thing stand out as a performance, a movement distinct and vastly important. It was one of those hypersensitive moments when all your automatic movements, however long established, however habitual, become separate acts of will. You are like a man learning to walk after polio. You take nothing for granted, absolutely nothing at all.