The Big Sleep (1946) - Quotes

Born for the Big Screen

Taglines: The picture they were born for!

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Desire and Disdain in Relationships

Taglines: The type of man she hated . . . was the type she wanted !

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A Tense Exchange of Unspoken Feelings

Vivian: You've forgotten one thing. Me.

Marlowe: [pulling her to him] What's wrong with you?

Vivian: Nothing you can't fix.

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A Playful Exchange About Tips and Entry

Carmen: What does the hat-check girl get for a tip?

Marlowe: I'm trying to think of something appropriate. How did you get in here?

Carmen: Bet you can't guess.

Marlowe: Oh, but I can. You came in through the keyhole like Peter Pan.

Carmen: Who's he?

Marlowe: Hmm. A guy I used to know around a pool room.

Carmen: You're cute.

Marlowe: I'm getting cuter every minute.

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A Tense Exchange Over Money and Secrets

Marlowe: Let's begin with what Eddie Mars has on you.

Vivian: If he had anything, would it be any of your business? You've already been paid, haven't you?

Marlowe: Yeah, by you.

Vivian: Are you after more money?

Marlowe: Well, I guess you've got a right to ask that. No, I'm not after more money. I've already been well paid. I've got another reason.

Vivian: You like my father, don't you?

Marlowe: Mmm, hmm.

Vivian: Then why don't you stop?

Marlowe: Remember I told you I was beginning to like another one of the Sternwoods?

Vivian: I wish you'd show it.

Marlowe: [He kisses her] That should be awful easy.

Vivian: [They kiss a second time] I liked that. I'd like more. That's even better.

Marlowe: All right, now that's settled. What's Eddie Mars got on you?

Vivian: So that's the way...

Marlowe: That's the way it is. Kissing is all right. It's nice. I'd like to do more of it. But first, I want to find out what Eddie Mars has on you.

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Casual Conversation Between Vivian and Marlowe

Vivian: Tell me: What do you usually do when you're not working?

Marlowe: Oh, play the horses, fool around.

Vivian: No women?

Marlowe: I'm generally working on something most of the time.

Vivian: Could that be stretched to include me?

Marlowe: Well I like you. I've told you that before.

Vivian: I like hearing you say it. But you didn't do much about it.

Marlowe: Well, neither did you.

Vivian: Well, speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them work out a little first, see if they're front-runners or come from behind, find out what their hole-card is. What makes them run.

Marlowe: Find out mine?

Vivian: I think so.

Marlowe: Go ahead.

Vivian: I'd say you don't like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a lead, take a little breather in the backstretch, and then come home free.

Marlowe: You don't like to be rated yourself.

Vivian: I haven't met anyone yet that can do it. Any suggestions?

Marlowe: Well, I can't tell till I've seen you over a distance of ground. You've got a touch of class, but, uh...I don't know how - how far you can go.

Vivian: A lot depends on who's in the saddle. Go ahead Marlowe, I like the way you work. In case you don't know it, you're doing all right.

Marlowe: There's one thing I can't figure out.

Vivian: What makes me run?

Marlowe: Uh-huh.

Vivian: I'll give you a little hint. Sugar won't work. It's been tried.

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Disillusionment in Relationships

Agnes: That's what I always draw. Never once a man who's smart all the way around the course. Never once.

Marlowe: Did I hurt you much, sugar?

Agnes: You and every other man I've ever met.

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A Conversation About Pictures and Guns

Carmen: Can I have my picture now?

Marlowe: No.

Carmen: Can I have my gun back?

Marlowe: Later.

Carmen: You're cute. I like you.

Marlowe: What you see's nothing. I've got a Balinese dancing girl tattooed across my chest.

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Guns and Brains in The Big Sleep

Marlowe: My, my, my! Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains. You know, you're the second guy I've met today that seems to think a gat in the hand means the world with the tail. Ha, ha, ha. Put it down, Joe. The other guy's name was Eddie Mars. You ever hear of him?

Brody: Nope.

Marlowe: If he ever gets wise to where you were last night in the rain, you'll hear of him.

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Unraveling Secrets and Intentions

Marlowe: You wanna tell me now?

Vivian: Tell you what?

Marlowe: What it is you're trying to find out. You know, it's a funny thing. You're trying to find out what your father hired me to find out, and I'm trying to find out why you want to find out.

Vivian: You could go on forever, couldn't you? Anyway it'll give us something to talk about next time we meet.

Marlowe: Among other things.

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Confrontation in the Bedroom

Vivian: You go too far, Marlowe.

Marlowe: Those are harsh words to throw at a man, especially when he's walking out of your bedroom.

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Tension Between Marlowe and Vivian

Vivian: You know, I don't see what there is to be cagey about, Mr. Marlowe. And I don't like your manners.

Marlowe: I'm not crazy about yours. I didn't ask to see you. I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them long winter evenings. And I don't mind your ritzing me, or drinking your lunch out of a bottle, but don't waste your time trying to cross-examine me.

Vivian: People don't talk to me like that.

Marlowe: Ohhh.

Vivian: Do you always think you can handle people like, uh, trained seals?

Marlowe: Uh, huh. I usually get away with it, too.

Vivian: How nice for you.

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Detective's Confidence in Challenging Situation

Vivian: So you're a private detective. I didn't know they existed, except in books. Or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors. My, you're a mess, aren't you?

Marlowe: I'm not very tall either. Next time, I'll come on stilts, wear a white tie and carry a tennis racket.

Vivian: I doubt if even that would help. Now this business of Dad's. You think you can handle it for him?

Marlowe: It shouldn't be too tough.

Vivian: Really? I would have thought a case like that took a little effort.

Marlowe: Not too much.

Vivian: What will your first step be?

Marlowe: The usual one.

Vivian: I didn't know there was a usual one.

Marlowe: Oh sure there is. It comes complete with diagrams on page forty-seven of How to Be a Detective in Ten Easy Lessons correspondence school textbook.

Unexpected Encounters in The Big Sleep

Sternwood: [about talking to Carmen about her "debts" (actually blackmail)] If I did, she'd just suck her thumb and look coy.

Marlowe: I met her in the hall and she did that to me. Then she tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.

The Dullness of Existence and Corruption

Sternwood: You are looking, sir, at a very dull survival of a very gaudy life - crippled, paralyzed in both legs, very little I can eat, and my sleep is so near waking that it's hardly worth the name. I seem to exist largely on heat, like a newborn spider. The orchids are an excuse for the heat. Do you like orchids?

Marlowe: Not particularly.

Sternwood: Nasty things! Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, and their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption.