My short-term factual memory can be like water; events are a brief disturbance on the surface and then it closes back up again, as if nothing ever touched it. But it’s a strange fact that my long-term memory remains strong, perhaps because it recor...
Hey, can I see that sword you were using?" I showed him Riptide, and explained how it turned from a pen into a sword just by uncapping it. "Cool! Does it ever run out of ink?" "Um, well, I don't actually write with it." "Are you really the son of Pos...
Vimes shook some lather off the blade. "Hah! I bet they have. Tell me, Willikins, did you fight much when you were a kid? Were you in a gang or anything?" "I was privileged to belong to the Shamlegger Street Rude Boys, sir," said the butler. "Really?...
Todd’s wife was one of those women with a forced smile perpetually cemented on her face. Even after being chased by a mob of homicidal maniacs and attempting to barricade doors with barstools she kept up appearances, practicing for the days when he...
When I throw back my head and howl People (women mostly) say But you've always done what you want, You always get your way - A perfectly vile and foul Inversion of all that's been. What the old ratbags mean Is I've never done what I don't. So the shi...
I know when people think of New York, they think of theater, restaurants, cultural landmarks and shopping,” I told him. “But beyond the iconic skyline and the news from Wall Street, New York is a collection of villages. In our neighborhoods, we a...
He looked like every glossy frat boy in every nerd movie ever made, like every popular town boy who’d ever looked right through her in high school, like every rotten rich kid who’d ever belonged where she hadn’t. My mama warned me about guys li...
Almost every time I speak to teenagers, particularly young female students who want to talk to me about feminism, I find myself staggered by how much they have read, how creatively they think and how curiously bullshit-resistant they are. Because of ...
I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child, I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be... This does not mean that I ought to be t...
As a child, I read because books–violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not–were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life. I read widely, and loved plenty of the classics so, yes, I recognized the domestic terrors faced by ...
Norman picked up a sketch, glanced at it, then put it back down on the table. "I saw Bea Williamson this morning," he said in a low voice. "Lurking about looking for cut glass." "Oh, of course," Mira said with a sigh. "Did she have it with her?" Norm...
We're so self-important. So arrogant. Everybody's going to save something now. Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save the snails. And the supreme arrogance? Save the planet! Are these people kidding? Save the planet? We don't even know ...
Much of life, fatherhood included, is the story of knowledge acquired too late: if only I’d known then what I know now, how much smarter, abler, stronger, I would have been. But nothing really prepares you for kids, for the swells of emotion that r...
Baloo: [scatting] Well, it's a doo-bah-dee-doo, yes, it's a doo-bah-dee-doo, I mean a doo-bee, doo-bee, doo-bee, doo-bee, doo-bee-dee-doo. And with... [Sees Mowgli] Baloo: Well, now. Ha ha! What have we here? [sniffs Mowgli] Baloo: Hmmm. Say, what a ...
Dean: [long silence before Dean speaks] You know, it's not just us, we got a little girl we gotta think about. [breaks into tears] Cindy: I know... I... I can't do this anymore. Dean: You're just thinking about yourself. What about Frankie? You want ...
Randal Graves: Man, you must love this fucking guy, 'cause he's the biggest pussy I ever met, the dude who lives his life according to everyone else's standards. "I have to go down to Florida and get married because that what's expected of me." And t...
Caitlin Bree: Can I use your bathroom? Randal Graves: Sure. But there's no lights back there. Caitlin Bree: Why aren't there any lights? Randal Graves: Well, there are, but for some reason they stop working at 5:14 every night. Caitlin Bree: You're k...
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: Why did you and Brick suddenly decide to drive up from New Orleans? Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt: For your birthday, what else? Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: I had a birthday last year and the year before that. Didn't see you t...
Simon: Simon says, McClane and the Samaritan will go to the subway station at 72nd and Broadway. I will call you in 15 minutes on the payphone outside the station. No Police. Failure to answer will constitute noncompliance. Do you understand me, John...
Brian Taylor: You feel like a hero? Mike Zavala: What? Brian Taylor: You feel like a hero? Mike Zavala: No. Brian Taylor: Yeah, me neither. [pauses] Brian Taylor: What's a hero feel like? Mike Zavala: I don't know, man. Did I tell you that me and uh....
Chick Gandil: [the "Black Sox" warm up on the field. Shoeless Joe catches a fly ball hit by Buck Weaver] Show-off! Buck Weaver: Stick it in your ear, Gandil. Eddie Cicotte: Yeah, Gandil. If you'd have run like that against Detroit, I'd have won 20 ga...
