"Inherent Vice" Quotes

Paranoia is just having the right information.

You know what they say: once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

Deep down, she's basically shallow.

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me—into us—clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.

Why didn't I go into accounting? You work 9 to 5. People treat you with respect. And you get to wear a coat and tie.

You hide, they seek.

Some might say it's a sign of the times that you can't even trust a furth of a gram of coke these days.

All I ever wanted was to know what was going on. Why? Why? Why? Why? Now that I'm dead, I know everything.

Paranoia's the garlic in life's kitchen, right, you can never have too much.