Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961,) fully Samuel Dashiell Hammett, was an American novelist. Creator of the “hard-boiled” (coarse, unsentimental, and cynical) school of detective fiction, he wrote such famous works as The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1932.)
Born in St Mary’s County, Maryland, Hammett grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore and left school at 14 to help support his family. He was a messenger boy, newspaper courier, clerk, timekeeper, yardman, machine operator, and stevedore before joining the Pinkerton Detective Agency in New York City as a private detective.
Hammett served his literary apprenticeship writing stories for pulp magazines like Black Mask. He then became the first American author of the original ‘private eye’ crime novels. He was noted for being original, unsentimental, and an acute social observer. His four best novels are Red Harvest (1929,) The Dain Curse (1929,) The Maltese Falcon (1930; filmed thrice,) and The Glass Key (1931.)
A chronic alcoholic, Hammett’s subsequent work was not as successful, except for The Thin Man (1934; film, 1934.) Hammett made a living as a scriptwriter and briefly served enlisted during World War II. His opposition to McCarthyism earned him a six-month jail sentence for his left-wing political activities and the defense of civil liberties.
Hammett’s collection of short stories, The Big Knockover and Other Stories (1966,) appeared posthumously.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Dashiell Hammett
The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.
—Dashiell Hammett
To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted.
—Dashiell Hammett
My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.
—Dashiell Hammett
The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.
—Dashiell Hammett
When you write, you want fame, fortune and personal satisfaction. You want to write what you want to write and feel it’s good, and you want this to go on for hundreds of years. You’re not likely ever to get all these things, and you’re not likely to give up writing and commit suicide if you don’t, but that is—and should be—your goal. Anything else is kind of piddling.
—Dashiell Hammett
I don’t like eloquence. If it isn’t effective enough to pierce your hide, it’s tiresome, and if it is effective enough, it muddles your thoughts.
—Dashiell Hammett
If a man says a thing often enough, he is very likely to acquire some sort of faith in it sooner or later.
—Dashiell Hammett
I don’t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.
—Dashiell Hammett
The people who lie the most are nearly always the clumsiest at it, and they’re easier to fool with lies than most people, too. You’d think they’d be on the look-out for lies, but they seem to be the very ones that will believe almost anything at all.
—Dashiell Hammett
Emotions are useless during business hours.
—Dashiell Hammett
That’s wonderful. I do like a man that tells you right out he’s looking out for himself. Don’t we all? I don’t trust a man that says he’s not. And the man that’s telling the truth when he says he’s not I distrust most of all, because he’s an ass and an ass that’s going contrary to the laws of nature.
—Dashiell Hammett
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