An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence. - Raymond Chandler

It got dark and the rain-clouded lights of the stores were soaked up by the black street.

When you read a story, you accept its implausibilities and extravagances, because they are no more fantastic than the conventions of the medium itself. But when you look at real people, moving against a real background, and hear them speaking real words, your imagination is anaesthetized. You accept what you see and hear, but you do not complement it from the resources of your own imagination. The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half-piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.

Don't ever write anything you don't like yourself and if you do like it, don't take anyone's advice about changing it. They just don't know.” — Raymond Chandler