Thick cunning played on her face, had no fun there and went somewhere else. - Raymond Chandler

I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.

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

Undoubtedly the stories about them [hard-boiled detectives] had a fantastic element. Such things happened, but not so rapidly, nor to so close-knit a group of people, nor within so narrow a frame of logic. This was inevitable because the demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.