Final Exam Quotes & Authors Flashcards
(30 cards)
“When I yanked Tai over backward by his fat throat, and slammed him to the floor, his guns were still barking metal;.”
“The House in Turk Street” Dashiell Hammett
“He didn’t believe me. He never believed me. He went to the gallows thinking me a liar.”
“The House in Turk Street” Dashiell Hammett
“The Chinese are a thorough people; if one of them carries a gun at all, he usually carries two or three or more.”
“The House in Turk Street” Dashiell Hammett
“‘Well you can call it a decidedly successful operation. The Quarres and Hook dead; the bonds and I in your hands.’ ‘Not so bad,’ I admitted, ‘but will you do me a favor?’ ‘If I may.’ ‘Tell me what the hell this is all about!’ ‘All about?’ he asked. ‘Exactly! From what you people have let me overhear, I gather that you pulled some sort of job in Los Angeles that netted you a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of bonds; but i can’t remember any recent job of that size down there……….. and that’s what brought me here.”
“The House in Turk Street” Dashiell Hammett
“Then I made a discovery: something had changed in the room near her! I shut my eyes and tried to picture that part of the room as it had been before the two men had clashed. Opening my eyes suddenly, I had the answer.”
“The House in Turk Street” Dashiell Hammett
“Anna Halsey was about two hundred and forty pounds of middle-aged putty-faced woman in a black tailor-made suit. Her eyes were shiny black shoe buttons, her cheeks were as soft as suet and about he same color. She was sitting behind a black glass desk that looked like Napoleon’s tomb and she was smoking a cigarette in a black holder that was not quite as long as a rolled umbrella. She said: ‘I need a man.’”
“Trouble is My Business” Raymond Chandler
“‘Listen,’ I told him earnestly, ‘if you want to call all the plays in this game, you can carry the ball yourself. Or you can save yourself a lot of money and hire and order taker. I have to do things my way.”
“Trouble is My Business” Raymond Chandler
“Somebody was nuts. I was nuts. Everybody was nuts. None of it fitted together worth a nickel.”
“Trouble is My Business” Raymond Chandler
“Nobody knows where he is. Miss Huntress doesn’t know. I don’t know. No one at any of the places where he might be knows.”
“Trouble is My Business” Raymond Chandler
“The arteries stood out in Grave Digger’s swollen neck and his voice came out cotton dry…….so all that’s left is let ‘em eat one another up.”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“They were silent for a moment with the rain pouring over them, thinking about these eighty-seven families who had put down their thousand-dollar grubstakes on a dream. They knew that these families had come by their money the hard way. To many, it represented the savings of a lifetime…..”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“He then looked from one detective to another. ‘What the hell is going on today? It’s only ten o’clock in the evening and judging from the reports it’s been going on like this since morning.’ He leafed through the reports, reading charges: “Man kills his wife with an axe for burning his breakfast pork chop..man shoots another man demonstrating a recent shooting he had witnessed…..’All colored citizens,’ Coffin Ed interrupted.”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“You’re certain this bale of cotton was carried by the meat delivery truck used by the hijackers?’ Anderson said. ‘We found fibers of raw cotton in the truck. Uncle Bud finds a ball of cotton on 137th Street and sells it to the junkyard. The bale of cotton is missing. A junkyard laborer has been killed. We’re certain of that much.’ Grave Digger said……”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“Grave Digger slapped him so hard his body bent one-sided like a rubber man, and Coffin Ed slapped him back. They slapped him back and forth until his brains were addled but left no bruises….”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“Deke looked sick. He knew it was a good story. He knew if she took it to court, dressed in black, her eyes downcast in sorrow, and spoke in a halting manner-with his record-she could make it stick. She didn’t have any kind of criminal record. He could see the chair in SingSing and himself sitting in it.”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“It was Grave Digger’s first night back on duty since he had been shot up by one of Benny Mason’s hired guns in the aper resulting from the loss of a shipment of heroin……”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“Grave Digger and Coffin Ed froze. Their nostrils quivered like hound dogs on a scent. Thoughts churned through their heads like sheets of lightning.”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“At that moment they felt the same as all the other helpless black people standing in the rain.”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“Well kiss my foot if it isn’t Jones.’ Lieutenant Anderson exclaimed, rising from behind the captain’s desk to extend his hand to his ace detectives. Slang sounded as phony as a copper’s smile coming from his lips, but he warm smile lighting his thin pale face and the twinkle in his deep-set blue eyes squared it. ‘Welcome home.”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“How you reckon he figured it out?’ Coffin Ed asked. ‘Hell, man, how you think he was going to miss seeing the bale had been tampered with,’ Grave Digger said. “As much cotton as he’s handled in his lifetime.”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“The white cops looked at Coffin Ed and Gravedigger with the envious awe usually reserved for a lion tamer with a cage of big cats……”
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” Chester Himes
“Bande Maximum Security Prison was the brain-child of Askia Amin, our country’s first prime minister. He had seen a model for it during an official visit to Latin America. Upon his return he signed an order for a replica to be but in a reclaimed swamp. in a location as remote from the bustle of life as possible…..Amin and his ministers become the prison’s first inmates.”
“Arrows of Rain” Okey Ndibe
“‘We know an easy way to get the facts out of you,’ said the woman when the session resumed. ‘So it’s up to you.’ My back seethed with pain. My body already felt like a thing less alive than slowly dying and the suggestion of torture reached me in only an abstract, distant way…..’Let’s just give him the mosquito treatment.”
“Arrows of Rain” Okey Ndibe
“‘Why have you become involved in this dangerous scheme?’ I asked Dr. Mandi as we walked to our cars. He halted and raised his head to scan the sky…..’You and Bukuru both spoke of yourselves as underdogs….”
“Arrows of Rain” Okey Ndibe
