Noir quotes:

Send

I'm a huge fan of Cabernet and Bordeaux, and am passionate about Pinot Noir and Burgundies. -- Raymond E. Feist
Noir is dead for me because historically, I think it's a simple view. I've taken it as far as it can go. I think I've expanded on it a great deal, taken it further than any other American novelist. -- James Ellroy
When I pair food and wine, I start with the food. If I have a beautiful roasted bird, I might choose a Cabernet or Pinot Noir, or maybe a Syrah, depending on the sauce and what is in my cellar. -- Jacques Pepin
Her cooking suggested she had attended the Cordon Noir. -- Leo Rosten
God made Cabernet Sauvignon, whereas the Devil made Pinot Noir. -- Andre Tchelistcheff
The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time. -- Frank Miller
One difference between film noir and more straightforward crime pictures is that noir is more open to human flaws and likes to embed them in twisty plot lines. -- Roger Ebert
I got into reading a lot of noir and a lot of thrillers as well, and I really admired the plotting about those and the way that they can surprise you. And obviously to surprise people and to have twists in the tale, you have to plan quite carefully. -- Joe Abercrombie
I grew up on the crime stuff. Spillane, Chandler, Jim Thompson, and noir movies like Fuller, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang. When I first showed up in New York to write comics back in the late 1970s, I came with a bunch of crime stories but everybody just wanted men in tights. -- Frank Miller
That was certainly true the first time, when I did Body Heat, the first movie that I directed. I was looking for a vessel to tell a certain kind of story, and I was a huge fan of Film Noir, and what I liked about it was that it was so extreme in style. -- Lawrence Kasdan
Expect the unexpected like a chain smoking, hard drinking, monochrome world dwelling Noir Detective -- Dean Cavanagh
In Greek tragedy, they fall from great heights. In noir, they fall from the curb. -- Dennis Lehane
Noir is where the clarity of moral divisions break down, the black and whites turn into grays. -- Elliott Colla
I can't believe I was ever stupid enough to trust Noir. Come to the dark side. We have cookies. (Zeth) -- Sherrilyn Kenyon
Where are we? (Jericho) Noir's happy place. It's where he brings the beings he wants to play with. (Asmodeus) Punish. (Jericho) You say ta-mah-to. I say to-mah-to. (Asmodeus) -- Sherrilyn Kenyon
I pity those born of the lighter side. They have no understanding of how seductive cruelty is. The music made out of screams and pleas for mercy. Mmmm. Nothing better. (Noir) -- Sherrilyn Kenyon
No viticultural region in America has demonstrated as much progress in quality and potential for greatness as... the Santa Barbara region, where the Burgundian varietals Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are planted in its cooler climates. -- Robert M. Parker, Jr.
I've been embracing the red lip and just wearing it every day, not just for going out. And I get so many compliments on it. I love the Julie Hewett Rouge Noir: it's sort of a forties red. -- Stephanie March
I so love the smell of hatred and revenge. It's the headiest of concoctions. (Noir) I personally feel that way toward blood. No better smell in the universe than when it's combined with the aroma of those fearing death. (Jericho) -- Sherrilyn Kenyon
I envied women with signature hair-dos, signature perfumes, signature sign-offs. Novelists who tell Vogue Magazine: "I can't live without my Smythson notebook, Pomegranate Noir cologne by Jo Malone and Frette sheetsâ?. In the grip of madness, materialism begins to look like an admirable belief system. -- Emma Forrest
Yeah, I was always a big fan of noir. -- Robert Rodriguez
I think a film noir demands a beginning and an end. -- Claire Denis
I'm not Josh Brolin or Ryan Gosling. They're more noir than I. -- Anthony Mackie
I've been a fan of noir films since I was in high school. -- Francis Lawrence
Going back to the noir fiction of the 30s, 40s and 50s. It's very contemporary. -- Jeff Goldblum
I've been thinking of doing a sci-fi thriller or a sci-fi noir, if that's possible. -- Kim Ji-woon
I didn't know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting! -- Marie Windsor
But, number one, I think traditional noir doesn't work in contemporary storytelling because we don't live in that world anymore -- Brian De Palma
But, number one, I think traditional noir doesn't work in contemporary storytelling because we don't live in that world anymore. -- Brian De Palma
Is there something in druggy subjects that encourages directors to make imitation film noir? Film noir itself becomes an addiction. -- Pauline Kael
Flawed characters... a ticking clock... morally questionable acts on all sides... moody, evocative art... oh yeah, this the stuff crime noir fans love! -- Christos Gage
Pinot noir is the ultimate wine to have at the table. It's a white wine masquerading as red...[while] chardonnay is a red masquerading as a white. -- Kevin Zraly
There is something missing in a lot of digital filmmaking, something I call "poetic reality." That's something you see played out in film noir, where the technique establishes the mood. -- Vilmos Zsigmond
There were some things that I found I really enjoyed singing about; like, on the title track, there's this film-noir character of a woman who's sort of losing it in a room. -- Diana Krall
I think there are specific times where film noir is a natural concomitant of the mood. When there's insecurity, collapse of financial systems - that's where film noir always hits fertile ground. -- Werner Herzog
With a genre like film noir, everyone has these assumptions and expectations. And once all of those things are in place, that's when you can really start to twist it about and mess around with it. -- Lana Wachowski
Every novel presents a slice of life. A noir policier for example presents one slice, one that perhaps addresses social dysfunction or some sort of pathology, while mine present a slice that is more upbeat and affirmative. -- Alexander McCall Smith
Lionel Essrog, the twitching, barking, gabbling narrator of Jonathan Lethem's new novel, 'Motherless Brooklyn,' is no movie-of-the-week novelty grafted onto a noir mystery. Maybe his Tourette's is a gimmick, but it's a gimmick with depth, with soul. -- Gary Krist
That's what noir feels like to me. It feels like some kind of recurring dream, with very strong archetypes operating. You know, the guilty girl being pursued, falling, all kinds of stuff that we see in our dreams all the time. -- Brian De Palma
That's what noir feels like to me. It feels like some kind of recurring dream, with very strong archetypes operating. You know, the guilty girl being pursued, falling, all kinds of stuff that we see in our dreams all the time -- Brian De Palma
I think the original Matrix was really incredible. It was so original and it did so many innovative things with film. It was a much bigger film. Bound was just a smaller film. It was kind of like an old noir film. -- Gina Gershon
I think the original Matrix was really incredible. It was so original and it did so many innovative things with film. It was a much bigger film. Bound was just a smaller film. It was kind of like an old noir film -- Gina Gershon
I don't know anybody who doesn't hate being called alt.country. It just sounds like a website. I don't mind being called Americana, I don't mind being called country noir, or independent country is fine, but the words alt.country make me insane. -- Neko Case
I'm into clothes, but in a way that's related to wanting to walk into a film noir movie. You know, I love to go to vintage stores, but mostly it's stuff that I don't have anywhere to wear... I don't have the life that goes with the clothes. -- Maureen Dowd
Billy Wilder is really is a heavy influence on Bound. We felt that film noir was a genre where you could create a really contained story. We wanted to be on a set as much as we could to get the kind of style level we were looking for. -- Lana Wachowski
I'd love to play a femme fatale in a film noir. I'm thinking of one of those roles that Lauren Bacall or Bette Davis might have played. What I wouldn't like is to suddenly find myself being cast, as many senior actresses seem to be, as the abbess in a convent. -- Diana Quick
In narrative cinema, a certain terminology has already been established: 'film noir,' 'Western,' even 'Spaghetti Western.' When we say 'film noir' we know what we are talking about. But in non-narrative cinema, we are a little bit lost. So sometimes, the only way to make us understand what we are talking about is to use the term 'avant-garde.' -- Jonas Mekas
No whiskey, no religion, nothing. -- Charles Willeford
The rain fell like dead bullets. -- Scott Nicholson
You always know when somebody's dead. -- Kevin Bergeron
The Filipino houseboy was conscious now -- Charles Willeford
Cherchez la femme, Bucky. Remember that. -- James Ellroy
Freedom breeds uncertainty; uncertainty invites chaos. -- R.J. Leahy
Dead men are heavier than broken hearts. -- Raymond Chandler
I'll remember you... I remember everyone I've lost. -- Rebecca McNutt
It probably started in poetry; almost everything does. -- Raymond Chandler
The white moth of hope fluttered before her face. -- Cornell Woolrich
When a beautiful blonde asks, you don't say no. -- V.T. Davy
I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake -- James M. Cain
She was blond as hell, wearing a lot of black. -- Kenneth Fearing
Ever since I could remember, She was all that mattered. -- James J. Caterino
I didn't feel evil. I felt nervous, scared, nothing more. -- Scott B. Smith
Like other self-educated men, he was vain of his vocabulary. -- Ross MacDonald
By doing one wrong thing, I thought I could make everything right. -- Scott B. Smith
I'm a detective, but nuns could stonewall Sam Spade into an asylum -- Dennis Lehane
The coffee shop smell was strong enough to build a garage on. -- Raymond Chandler
The biggest mistake you can make is thinking you know who you are. -- J.P. Bloch
The echo of the first shot, like the first sip of whiskey, burning... -- Richard K. Morgan
Downtown, a dress for Meg- I do it every time I kill a man. -- James Ellroy
It's not always to the benefit of the story to have it so preordained. -- Daniel Woodrell
She's dead. So is your fat pansy. You can be dead, too, if you want. -- Richard Stark
A woman could do a lot of crazy things for a pair of fine-looking dimples. -- Amy Andrews
The dark clouds make the black sea. (Les nuages noirs - Font la mer noire) -- Charles de Leusse
My free hand reached for something to hold on to, and closed on liquid nothing. -- Ross MacDonald
The finest thing in the world is knowing how to belong to oneself.Michel de Montaigne -- Laurie Stevens
She killed to get the dream she wanted, then found out it didn't want her back. -- Robyn Hugo McIntyre
He was a guy who talked with commas, like a heavy novel. Over the phone anyway. -- Raymond Chandler
The Italians were getting so accustomed to tragedies and disasters that their appetite for sensation was becoming jaded. -- Timothy Holme
Being a Berlin cop in 1942 was a little like putting down mousetraps in a cage full of tigers. -- Philip Kerr
The only thing he likes better than a nice juicy homicide is a sirloin steak smothered with onions. -- Richard Brautigan
She looked hot enough to catch fire, but too lazy to do anything but just lie there and smoke. -- Gil Brewer
...smoke twisting amongst the lights and turning the air a desolate blue, the colour of dead hopes and lost chances. -- Terry Pratchett
Somebody should have taken him to a stationary store and pointed out the difference between an envelope and a whore. -- Richard Brautigan
When the guy with asthma finally came in from the fire escape, Parker rabbit-punched him and took his gun away. -- Donald E. Westlake
For me, true noir is about people who know they are doing the wrong thing, and they do it anyway. -- Eddie Muller interview
The phone rang. Softly, in actuality, yet it seemed loud and ominous, as phones do at night in dark hotel rooms. -- Jim Thompson
I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman. -- James M. Cain
It was a cool day and very clear. You could see a long way-but not as far as Velma had gone. -- Raymond Chandler
There is always a unique atmosphere in the car when you drive through the City with a dead body in the back. -- Steen Langstrup
I hate the world. Everything comes into it so clean and goes out so dirty. (from COVER CHARGE - currently not listed) -- Cornell Woolrich
So. You're a fallen angel." She folded her arms."I'm not fallen," he said roughly."Then what are you?"He shrugged. "Busted. -- Vicki Pettersson
All guys are scared of each other, didn't you know that? I'm not the only one. We're all born afraid.("New York Blues") -- Cornell Woolrich
Call me Dudley. We're of equal rank. I'm older, but you're far better looking. I can tell we're going to be grand partners. -- James Ellroy
Sam Spade is as gray as the economic skies over America and moves through the story as cool and slick as a Teflon cat. -- Stephen Sullivan
She just stood there and looked at the empty highway, and you could almost tell how bored she was by the way she stood. -- Clifton Adams
There were three of them in the room now, where only two had first come in. Death was in the room with the two of them. -- Cornell Woolrich
I knew what she was, and it made no difference at all. She was hard, as ruthless as she was beautiful, as brittle as bone china. -- Clifton Adams
He looked as if he'd got a lot of pleasure out of going ten rounds with your grandmother and making sure she went the whole distance. -- Richard Brautigan
Normally, I don't take to drinking so early in the morning, but I bend the rules when I get my ass kicked before sunrise."--Thomas Morelli -- C.J. Fella
If you leave me here," the guy on the floor said, "he'll kill me tomorrow morning." Parker looked at him. "So you've still got tonight," he said. -- Donald E. Westlake
The hotel was guest-friendly with hourly rates and had enough room to swing a cat, if it were a small cat and you wanted to swing it. -- James A. Newman
I decided to coin the term 'cosy crime noir' for Brighton Belle. That is 'cosy crime' for today's sensibilities because there is that slightly edgy element to it. -- Sara Sheridan
Winter was gray and mean upon the city and every night was a package of cold bleak hours, like the hours in a cell that had no door. -- David Goodis
The face she made at me was probably meant for a smile. Whatever it was, it beat me. I was afraid she'd do it again, so I surrendered -- Dashiell Hammett
It's time to end the brain drain and move to brain gain. It's time for a great mind of Nigeria to return home. You're the mind we need, Doctor. -- Deji Olukotun
The clouds were still bunched up in the sky like a gang on a street corner, and it looked to me like they had the sun pretty effectively intimidated. -- Jonathan Lethem
But there is something stronger than fear. It grows inside you, poisonous and festering, and it tells its name is Pride, but it's a liar. Its name is Hate. -- Clifton Adams
So that's the way you scientific detectives work. My god! for a fat, middle-aged, hard-boiled, pig-headed guy, you've got the vaguest way of doing things I ever heard of. -- Dashiell Hammett
I never met an addict who came from a nice home . I've met addicts that came from families that had money and nice houses. But never from a nice home. -- Sara Gran
Taking my drink, I moved around the bar to her. Her smile was a little crooked as I sat down. I guessed it had been a wet night for platinum blondes. -- Michael McCretton
His most characteristic detective stories end with the realization that no rational account of events is possible, and his suspense stories tend to close with terror not dissipated but omnipresent, like God.("Introduction") -- Francis M. Nevins Jr.
I had a funny feeling as I saw the house disappear, as though I had written a poem and it was very good and I had lost it and would never remember it again. -- Raymond Chandler
She wore a loose bathrobe that covered up a body that would have won first prize in a beauty contest for cement blocks.....She had a voice that made pearl harbour sound like a lullaby. -- Richard Brautigan
When I heard the gunshots, though, I knew - knew beyond the shadow of a doubt - that somewhere in Los Angeles Bette Davis was on the prowl and packing heat. ("Shadows From The Screen") -- Richard Valley
That's the idea. Listen, Frank, this one is different. She's a keeper." He let that part gel in me. "Get your head screwed on straight and move to Richmond. You hate it living in Pelham. -- Ed Lynskey
A Dick and Jane story written in blood and battered bone.See Spot.See Spot run.See Spot run from a gaping chest wound.Run Spot run.See Detective smear Spot into a baggy for DNA testing. -- J.E. Mac
Evans made himself their spokesman. "Charlie and Joe," he offered. "Remember us? We brought a friend back with us this time." Girls evidently didn't count in this little subdivision of the underworld; a miscalculation many a shady character has made. -- Cornell Woolrich
It's raining in Washington tonight. Plump, warm summer rain that covers the sidewalks with leopard spots. Downtown, elderly ladies carry their houseplants out to set them on the fire-escapes, as if they were infirm relatives or Boy Kings. I like that. -- Alan Moore
I wouldn't presume to define noir - if we could define it, we wouldn't need to use a French word for it - but it seems to me it's more a way of looking at the world than what one sees. -- Lawrence Block
His fear-inflamed mind sent the control-signal to his finger-joint to fold back. The trigger sliced back. The blast seemed to lift the booth clear off the floor, drop it down again. A pin-wheel of vacancy appeared in the glass, flinging off shards and slivers. -- Cornell Woolrich

Send