the contextual life

“He was the wrong man to have played Samaritan, and he’d known it, known it there on the road and in every irreversible moment since.”

The Expendable Man / Dorothy B. Hughes

“If only the police would not arrive until after the last toast had been lifted.”

The Expendable Man / Dorothy B. Hughes

“There’d been traffic between here and Phoenix, but the closer he drew to Phoenix, the less he cared. Phoenix was a city. In a city, people were too busy with their own affairs to wonder about a strangely assorted couple.”

The Expendable Man / Dorothy B. Hughes

“It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumedly educated, civilized man.”

The Expendable Man / Dorothy B. Hughes

“The fat man was flabbily fat with bulbous pink cheeks and lips and chins and neck, with a great soft egg of a belly that was all his torso, and pendant cones for arms and legs.”

The Maltese Falcon / Dashiell Hammett

“Help Dorothy to kill the Wicked Witch of the West,” replied the Beast. “When the Witch is dead, come to me, and I will then give you the biggest and kindest and most loving heart in all the Land of Oz.”

—Oz

The Wizard of Oz / L. Frank Baum

“I hope to Christ they don’t hang you, precious, by that sweet neck.”—Sam Spade

The Maltese Falcon / Dashiell Hammett

“Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was.”

The Wizard of Oz / L. Frank Baum

“I read all three of the morning papers over my eggs and bacon the next morning. Their accounts of the affair came as close to the truth as newspaper stories usually come—as close as Mars is to Saturn.”—Philip Marlowe

The Big Sleep / Raymond Chandler

“he was the only boy on the island who could neither read nor spell; not the smallest word. He was above all that sort of thing.”

Peter Pan / J.M. Barrie

[Illustration via]

“What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that.”—Philip Marlowe

The Big Sleep / Raymond Chandler

“Look, I know it’s a rotten game. It’s the only one The Man left us to play.”

Super Fly (1972)

The Scarecrow told them there were wonderful thoughts in his head; but he would not say what they were because he knew no one could understand them but himself. 

The Wizard of Oz / L. Frank Baum

There was, in her cupboard, a Golden Cap, with a circle of diamonds and rubies running round it. This Golden Cap had a charm. Whoever owned it could call three times upon the Winged Monkeys, who would obey any order they were given. But no person could command these strange creatures more than three times. Twice already the Wicked Witch had used the charm of the Cap. Once was when she had made the Winkies her slaves, and set herself to rule over their country. The Winged Monkeys had helped her do this. The second time was when she had fought against the Great Oz himself, and driven him out of the land of the West. The Winged Monkeys had also helped her in doing this. Only once more could she use this Golden Cap, for which reason she did not like to do so until all her other powers were exhausted. But now that her fierce wolves and her wild crows and her stinging bees were gone, and her slaves had been scared away by the Cowardly Lion, she saw there was only one way left to destroy Dorothy and her friends. 

The Wizard of Oz / L. Frank Baum

[illustration via]