John Houseman: "Lost Fortnight" (The Blue Dahlia, pg. xi)

...the long thin line of La Cienega (before it became the Fifty-seventh Street of the West) stretching directly ahead...

Farewell, My Lovely, 188-189

'Okey, it's a nice town. So is Chicago. You could live there a long time and not see a Tommy gun. Sure it's a nice town. It's probably no crookeder than Los Angeles. But you can only buy a piece of a big city. You can buy a town this size all complete, with the original box and tissue paper. That's the difference. And that makes me want out.'

The Long Goodbye, ?

A city no worse than others, a city rich and vigorous and full of pride, a city lost and beaten and full of emptiness.

The Little Sister, p.?

I smelled Los Angeles before I got to it. It smelled stale and old like a living room that had been closed too long. But the coloured lights fooled you. The lights were wonderful.