Chandler wrote images the way Etta James sings songs

With his earthy similes and metaphors, Raymond Chandler hewed images that -- once you read them -- you never shake them out of your mind.
And that makes you remember you have one.
And sometimes that hurts.
Like when you turn on Fox News.

"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window."

"I lit a cigarette that tasted like a plumber’s handkerchief."

"Dead men are heavier than broken hearts."

"To say she had a face that would have stopped a clock would have been to insult her. It would have stopped a runaway horse."

"She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket."

"I felt like an amputated leg."

"His smile was as stiff as a frozen fish."

"The voice got as cool as a cafeteria dinner."


Click here for more Chandlerisms.