When she got home, Bert came out to meet her, and took her into the den, where Letty was trying to quiet Veda. Letty went back to the kitchen, and Veda broke into loud sobs. Over and over, she kept saying: “I owed her a nickel! Oh, Mother, I cheated her out of it, and I meant to pay it back, but – I owed her a nickel!

— James M. Cain

James M. Cain Quotes

She started to talk. She had little to say about love, fidelity, or morals. She talked about money, and his failure to find work; and when she mentioned the lady of his choice, it was not as a siren who had stolen his love, but as the cause of the shiftlessness that had lately come over him.

— James M. Cain

Indeed, the whole scene had an ancient, almost classical ugliness to it, for they uttered the same recriminations that have been uttered since the beginning of marriage, and added little of originality to them, and nothing of beauty.

— James M. Cain

She left, feeling sullen over her wasted afternoon and wasted bus fare. It was her first experience with the sexological advertiser, though she was to find out he was fairly common. Usually he was some phony calling himself a writer, an agent, or a talent scout, who had found out that for a dollar and a half’s worth of newspaper space he could have a daylong procession of girls at his door, all desperate for work, all willing to do almost anything to get it.

— James M. Cain

Don’t wash family linen in public, or with anyone except family.

— James M. Cain

She preferred to remain at a distance, to enjoy this child as she seemed, rather than as she was.

— James M. Cain

People are sold over this desk just like cattle in the Chicago yards, and for exactly the same reason: they’ve got the points the buyer wants. All right, now take a look at something that does concern you. See those greens? That means ‘No Married Women.

— James M. Cain

Miss Turner got out a card and savagely wrote a note on it, her eyes snapping as she handed it over to Mildred. “All right, you wanted to know why that lady offered you a job as waitress, and why I recommended you for this. It’s because you’ve let half your life slip by without learning anything but sleeping, cooking, and setting the table, and that’s all you’re good for. So get over there. It’s what you’ve got to do, so you may as well start doing it.

— James M. Cain

And then at last I began to realize how terrible a thing it was, the dream that you make come true.

— James M. Cain

Presently Ray was panting like a little dog, and her whimpering had a pitiful note in it that made Mildred want to cry out against the injustice that one so small, so helpless, should have to bear such agony. But she sat perfectly still, not distracting by so much as a movement the attention of those on whom Ray’s chance depended.

— James M. Cain

When she got home, Bert came out to meet her, and took her into the den, where Letty was trying to quiet Veda. Letty went back to the kitchen, and Veda broke into loud sobs. Over and over, she kept saying: “I owed her a nickel! Oh, Mother, I cheated her out of it, and I meant to pay it back, but – I owed her a nickel!

— James M. Cain

Dr. Aldous was Bert’s rector, and for a miserable moment Mildred felt ashamed that she could claim no rector as her own. As a child she had gone to the Methodist Sunday school, but then her mother had begun to shop around, and finally wound up with the astrologers who had named Veda and Ray. Astrologers, she reflected unhappily, didn’t quite seem to fill the bill at this particular time.

— James M. Cain

I caught his eye running over my clothes once more, and I thought perhaps over what was beneath my clothes as well, and.

— James M. Cain

You must be a hell cat, though. You couldn’t make me feel like this if you weren’t.” “That’s what we’re going to do. Kiss me, Frank. On the mouth.” I kissed her. Her eyes were shining up at me like two blue stars. It was like being in church.

— James M. Cain

We had all that love, and we just cracked up under it. It’s a big airplane engine, that takes you through the sky, right up to the top of the mountain. But when you put it in a Ford, it just shakes it to pieces. That’s what we are, Frank, a couple of Fords. God is up there laughing at us.

— James M. Cain

It makes it even, but look at us now. We were up on a mountain. We were up so high, Frank. We had it all, out there, that night. I didn’t know I could feel anything like that. And we kissed and sealed it so it would be there forever, no matter what happened. We had more than any two people in the world. And then we fell down. First you, and then me. Yes, it makes it even. We’re down here together. But we’re not up high any more. Our beautiful mountain is gone.

— James M. Cain

Restaurant, hey. That’s what I’ve got. Whole goddam country lives selling hot dogs to each other.

— James M. Cain

We’re the friendliest enemies that ever were.

— James M. Cain

They spoke quickly, as though they were saying things that scalded their mouths, and had to be cooled with spit.

— James M. Cain

Ain’t that funny? You fall for a guy because he’s smart and then you find out he’s smart.

— James M. Cain

There are some foods some people just don’t like. I just don’t like movies. People tell me, don’t you care what they’ve done to your book? I tell them, they haven’t done anything to my book. It’s right there on the shelf.

— James M. Cain
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