The moment a man begins to talk about technique that's proof he's fresh out of ideas.
Source: Letter, 5 May 1939, to crime novelist Erle Stanley Gardner (published in Raymond Chandler Speaking, 1962).
-- Raymond Chandler, (Jul 23 1888-1959), US short-story writer, novelist; He was considered master of hard-boiled crime stories, e.g., The Big Sleep, 1939 and Playback, 1958.