How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Chinatown.
Quote #4
EVELYN: Hollis felt the public should own the water but I don't think my father felt that way. Actually, it was over the Van der Lip. The dam that broke.
GITTES: Oh, yeah?
EVELYN: Yes. He never forgave him for it.
GITTES: Never forgave him for what?
EVELYN: For talking him into building it, he never forgave my father...They haven't spoken to this day.
Hollis resists building a new dam because he knows its part of a scheme to help Noah steal water. These public works projects seem to be for the public good, but they're actually serving the interests of a privileged few.
Quote #5
RED FACED FARMER: The water department's been sending you people to blow up my water tanks! They threw poison down three of my wells! I call that a funny way to irrigate—who'd hire you for a thing like that?
The angry farmer totally contradicts what the deputy chief of the water department, Yelburton, told Jake. Now Jake knows that the water department isn't actually helping the farmers out here—rather, it's making the water shortage worse in order to further Noah Cross's plan.
Quote #6
GITTES: There's no time to be shocked by the truth. The coroner's report proves that he had salt water in his lungs when he was killed. Just take my word for it, all right? Now, I want to know how it happened, and I want to know why, and I want to know before Escobar gets here because I don't want to lose my license...I want to make it easy for ya. You were jealous. You had a fight. He fell. He hit his head. It was an accident but his girl is a witness. So you had to shut her up. You don't have the guts to harm her, but you got the money to keep her mouth shut. Who is she? And don't give me that crap about your sister because you don't have a sister.
Jake can imagine Evelyn accidentally killing Hollis, but he can't imagine the truth—all the nasty details about incest and about how Noah murdered Hollis. Even though he's a hardboiled detective, the truth is far more hardboiled than he is.