The perfect detective story cannot be written. The type of mind which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can produce the art… - Raymond Chandler

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.

We sneered at each other across the desk for a moment. He sneered better than I did.

Manhattan is a small town. It has to be. Only half a dozen places in Kansas are anything else.