The Big Sleep quotes

View Quote [Marlowe slaps Carmen]
Carmen: You're cute.
Marlowe: And you're higher than a kite. Come on, wake up.
Carmen: I know you. Doghouse Reilly. You're cute.
Marlowe: What do you know about this?
Carmen: What?
Marlowe: Mr. Geiger here on the floor.
Carmen: He's cute too.
Marlowe: [after grabbing and shaking her] Look, you got a dead man lying at your feet. How did it happen?
Carmen: You talk a lot, Reilly.

View Quote [after grabbing a thug's gun] Somebody's always giving me guns. You can turn around now. I don't like people who play games. Tell your boss.

View Quote [to Carol Lundgren] Oh, and by the way, Carol, you shot the wrong guy. Brody didn't kill Geiger.

View Quote [to Inspector Ohls] A nice old guy has two daughters. One of them is, well, wonderful. And the other one is not so wonderful. As a result somebody gets something on her. The father hires me to pay off. Before I can get to the guy, the family chauffeur kills him! But that didn't stop things. That just starts 'em. And two murders later I find out somebody's got something on wonderful....Last night, the two of 'em...they went to the moon to prove to me there was nothing between 'em. But I think there is and I think it's got something to do with Sean Regan.

View Quote [to Marlowe, on the phone] You can stop worrying and call off the bloodhounds. We found Sean....he's been in Mexico. He hasn't been very well...an accident of some kind. We didn't get all the details. I'm leaving at once to meet him...We haven't told him [the General] yet. We thought it best to wait.

View Quote [to Vivian] Look angel, I'm tired. My jaw hurts and my ribs ache. I killed a man back there and I had to stand by when a harmless little guy was killed. Do you think I can tell them all that happened because Geiger tried to throw a loop over Carmen? If I tell them that, they'll swarm over your house so fast that every closet you and your family have been in for the last six years will look like a police convention. They'll all ask the same question - where's Sean Regan? Why did Eddie Mars hide his wife to make it look like she ran off with Regan? Why did you hide out there? You're playing with dynamite.

View Quote [to Vivian] Why didn't you go to the police?...Because you were afraid they might turn up something that I couldn't sit on. Then where would the Sternwoods be. Isn't that right?

View Quote Marlowe, you're ruining everything, yes you are.

View Quote My name's Marlowe. General Sternwood wanted to see me.