I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of. - Dashiell Hammett
He was the perfect soldier: he went where you sent him, and stayed where you put him, and had no idea of his own to keep him from doing exactly what you told him. - Dashiell Hammett
I just tell you what happens. I don't explain it. - Dashiell Hammett
If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors or mounted policemen. - Dashiell Hammett
I found I was repeating myself. It is the beginning of the end when you discover you have style. - Dashiell Hammett