He can hum the music in his old man's quivering voice, but he prefers it in his head, where it lives on in violins and reedy winds. If he imagines it in rehearsal he can remember every step of his three-minute solo as if he had danced it only yesterd...
I probably won’t play a song the same way tomorrow as I play it today. Only a pitchman says the same thing the same way twice, without varying a word. If music is a language, why don’t people use it with the same subtlety, nuance, and facility as...
As a songwriter, I'm gathering clues and possibilities all the time, whether I see a piano that day or not. I've tried to explain to people how I collect these dispatches, because I think anybody can do what I'm talking about. Once I do plug in, I mi...
When I first read Lovecraft around 1971, and even more so when I began to read about his life, I immediately knew that I wanted to write horror stories. I had read Arthur Machen before I read Lovecraft, and I didn’t have that reaction at all. It wa...
I love bookshelves, and stacks of books, spines, typography, and the feel of pages between my fingertips. I love bookmarks, and old bindings, and stars in margins next to beautiful passages. I love exuberant underlinings that recall to me a swoon of ...
Growing up means learning what life is. When you're little, you have a set of ideals, standards, criteria, plans, outlooks, and you think that you have to sit around and wait for them to happen to you and then life will work. But life isn't like that...
I used to be terrified of death. My grandfather was terminal in the hospital across from my high school, yet I never visited him. That fact still haunts me to this day. Years later, my arms were around my grandmother as she struggled with her last br...
For the Wife Beater's Wife With blue irises her face is blossomed. Blue Circling to yellow, circling to brown on her cheeks. The long bone of her jaw untracked She hides in our kitchen. He sleeps it off next door. Her chicken legs tucked under her Sh...
In the time we spend reeling in confusion, grasping at straws trying to piece our egos together, we forget to acknowledge some things. Society created gender roles and categorizations and lifestyles and names and titles because we fear the unknown, e...
The Anne Rice books are a lot about infection. I read "Interview With the Vampire" a million times when I was in seventh and eighth grade. Also, [writing Gavriel's backstory] definitely came from those books: I sat down and reread them all and though...
Becky: [on the roof about to teach Dante how to dance] Hey, Twelve-Step! [Jay looks around confused] Becky: Jay! Jay: [looks up] Lord? Becky: Up here, jackass. Jay: [moves so he can see her] What the fuck are you doing up there? Yo, if you're gonna j...
Judah Rosenthal: And after the awful deed is done, he finds that he's plagued by deep-rooted guilt. Little sparks of his religious background which he'd rejected are suddenly stirred up. He hears his father's voice. He imagines that God is watching h...
John Daggett: What. The hell. Is going on? Bane: Our plan is proceeding as expected. John Daggett: Oh really? Do *I* look like I'm running Wayne Enterprises right now? Your hit, on the stock exchange, it didn't work, my friend! And now you have my co...
[Batman and Selina have just escaped from Bane and his mercenaries in the Bat. Batman lands it on top of a skyscraper and Selina immediately hops out] Catwoman: See you around. Batman: You're welcome. Catwoman: I had it under control. Batman: Those w...
Jim: [after seeing Edward accidentally cut Kim] Hey! Now you've done it! Kim: It was just a scratch Jim, really! Peg Boggs: What's going on? Jim: Call a doctor, he skewered Kim! Kim: He didn't skewer me! Jim: [now bullying and shoving Edward] You can...
La La: We should get them when they do to lunch at that Chinese place. Big Evil: That Chinese place is crawling with cops. We gotta get these fuckers when they're alone. La La: We can fucking follow their asses home and hit them there. Big Evil: Mira...
Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle: Look, I say we keep sitting on Boca! Walt Simonson: Jimmy, give it up. Give it up, it's all over with. If there was a deal, it's gone down by now. We blew it, we blew our warrants, and we blew our cover. Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle: Li...
Carl Showalter: Who the fuck are you? [Wade doesn't answer] Carl Showalter: WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? Wade Gustafson: I got your damn money. Now, where's my daughter? Carl Showalter: I am through fuckin' around here! Drop that fuckin' briefcase! Wade Gus...
Elsa: [to a guard] The party is over. Close the gates. Guard: Right away, Your Majesty. Anna: What? Elsa, no! No, wait! [She tries to grab Elsa's hand, but instead yanks off her glove] Elsa: [gasps, desperately] Give me my glove! Anna: [also desperat...
[last lines] Henry Hill: [narrating] Anything I wanted was a phone call away. Free cars. The keys to a dozen hideout flats all over the city. I bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend and then I'd either blow the winnings in a week or go to the shark...
Detective Remy Bressant: Corwin Earle. Serial molester, recently work-release. Went AWOL around the time Amanda disappeared. Nick Poole: Known associates - Leon Trett and his handsome wife, Roberta. The Tretts were released six and eight months ago, ...
