I am as proud to be called a feminist as I am to be called a Jew, or an American. Feminism is an indivisible part of who I am, and I remain mystified by the stigma that has been attached to the idea that women are human beings. It sounds so obvious a...
There's a school of thought today that rejects patriotism. People are made nervous by that intense allegiance to a country. They think it can only lead to war and bloodshed and that fights can be avoided if we all just compromise and get along. And, ...
The American flag doesn't give her glory on a peaceful, calm day. It's when the winds pick up and become boisterous, do we see her strength. When she unfolds her hand, and shows her frayed fingers, where we see the stretch of red-blood lines of man t...
America is a young dumb country and it needs all kinds of help. America is a dumb puppy with big teeth that bite and hurt. And we take care of America. We hold America to our bosom; we feed America, we make love to America. There wouldn't be an Ameri...
is a type of our best — our rarest. Electrical, I was going to say, beyond anyone, perhaps, ever was: charged, surcharged. Not a founder of new philosophies — not of that build. But a towering magnetic presence, filling the air about with light, ...
People talk about the happy quiet that can exist between two loves, but this, too, was great; sitting between his sister and his brother, saying nothing, eating. Before the world existed, before it was populated, and before there were wars and jobs a...
The movies make the brooding guy the hero – the guy with problems the guy who carries a gun, the gun with unresolved anger, the guy with a chip on his shoulder, the guy who’s a vampire – and they tell you that you can have the mythical happy en...
I want to change my life...except I sort of like it. I mean, I couldn't be more delighted every Monday night after Fletch goes to bed when I come downstairs, pull up the Bachelor on TiVo, drink Riesling, and eat cheddar/port wine Kaukauna cheese with...
I do not like postmodernism, postapocalyptic settings, postmortem narrators, or magic realism. I rarely respond to supposedly clever formal devices, multiple fonts, pictures where they shouldn't be—basically, gimmicks of any kind. I find literary f...
When I was cooking I enjoyed a sense of being ‘out’ of myself. The action of dicing vegetables and warming oil made my hands tingle and my thoughts switch to a different hemisphere, right brain rather than left, or left rather than right. In my m...
A Gift for You I send you... A cottage retreat on a hill in Ireland. This cottage is filled with fresh flowers, art supplies, and a double-wide chaise lounge in front of a wood-burning fireplace. There is a cabinet near the front door, where your fav...
Sgt. Pete Karelsen: I'm getting sick and tired watching you being a stooge for Holmes. Sergeant Milton Warden: You won't see it much longer. I'm getting sick and tired of it myself. I'm through, Pete. Any day now. And I mean it. Sgt. Pete Karelsen: [...
Vitruvius: We are entering your mind... Emmet: What? Vitruvius: To prove that you have the unlocked potential to be a Master Builder. [Vitruvius and Wyldstyle make chanting noises around Emmet, followed by a big flash of light] Emmet: [floating in sp...
Emmet: Hey, uh, listen. Do you think you can explain to me why I'm dressed like this? And what those big words in the sky were all about? And, like, where we are... in time? Lucy: Your home, Bricksburgh, is one of many realms in the universe. There's...
[after Batman flies in and saves them] Batman: Relax, everybody, I'm here. Emmet: Batman! [to Lucy] Batman: What's up, babe? Lucy: Babe! Emmet: What? Lucy: Oh, sorry. [to Batman] Lucy: Batman, this is Emmet. [to Emmet] Lucy: Emmet, this is my boyfrie...
Annie Wilkes: Here's your pills. Paul Sheldon: Annie? Annie, what is it? Annie Wilkes: The rain. Sometimes it gives me the blues. When you first came here, I only loved the writer part of Paul Sheldon. Now I know I love the rest of him, too. I know y...
Anzor "Duke" Yugorsky: [to Oleg] When I was growing up in Kishinov, we had no VHS, no DVD back then. I remember... I did a job for this friend of my father. I pickpocketed a key off this apparatchik. The man gave me as a reward this children's projec...
Chloë: There's never been a classic movie made in Bruges until now. Ray: Of course there hasn't. It's a shithole. Chloë: Bruges is my home town, Ray. Ray: Well, it's still a shithole. Chloë: It's not a shithole! Ray: What? Even midgets have to tak...
People are invariably surprised to hear me say I am both an atheist and an agnostic, as if this somehow weakens my certainty. I usually reply with a question like, 'Well, are you a Republican or an American?' The two words serve different concepts an...
It argued a special genius; he was clearly a case of that. The spark of fire, the point of light, sat somewhere in his inward vagueness as a lamp before a shrine twinkles in the dark perspective of a church; and while youth and early middle-age, whil...
Religious laws, in all the major religious traditions, have both a letter and a spirit. As I understand the words and example of Jesus, the spirit of the law is all-important whereas the letter, while useful… becomes lifeless and deadly without it....
