Ross Macdonald

Kenneth Millar (1915-12-13 - 1983-07-11), who wrote under the pseudonym Ross Macdonald, was an American-Canadian writer of mystery fiction and detective fiction.

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The Moving Target (1949)

• Nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean wouldn't cure.

The Way Some People Die (1951)

• An ugly woman with a gun is a terrible thing.

• The delicate sensitivity of a frightened rattlesnake.

The Drowning Pool (1952)

• They had jerrybuilt the beaches from San Diego to the Golden Gate, bulldozed super-highways through mountains, cut down a thousand year of redwood growth, and built an urban wilderness in the desert. They couldn't touch the ocean. They poured their sewage into it, but it couldn't be tainted.

The Goodbye Look (1969)

• "You have a secret passion for justice. Why don't you admit it?"
  "I have a secret passion for mercy. But justice is what keeps happening to people."

• Money costs too much.

Sleeping Beauty (1973)

• I knew how it was with drunks. They ran out of generosity, even for themselves.

• Every witness has his own way of creeping up on the truth.