Archie Henderson has won no awards, written no books and never played any representative sport. He was an under-11 tournament-winning tennis player as a boy, but left the game when he discovered rugby where he was one of the worst flyhalves he can re...
Every once in a bestseller list, you come across a truly exceptional craftsman, a wordsmith so adept at cutting, shaping, and honing strings of words that you find yourself holding your breath while those words pass from page to eye to brain. You kno...
The camp offices stood in the centre, adjoining the shrine to Jupiter that held the legion’s Eagle. In the camps of the Vth Macedonica and the VIth Ferrata, these buildings were of grey stone, dressed by Gaulish masons to such smoothness that a man...
It's one thing to develop a nostalgia for home while you're boozing with Yankee writers in Martha's Vineyard or being chased by the bulls in Pamplona. It's something else to go home and visit with the folks in Reed's drugstore on the square and actua...
I watched bulls bred to cows, watched mares foal, I saw life come from the egg and the multiplicative wonders of mudholes and ponds, the jell and slime of life shimmering in gravid expectation. Everywhere I looked, life sprang from something not life...
Andrew Largeman: I think we've corrupted this innocent girl enough for one day! Sam: I'm not innocent. Andrew Largeman: Yes, you are! That's what I like about you, okay? And I don't want this guy taking you to some sketchy quarry in the middle of New...
Tommy asks where Carolyn is. "She's at Cindy's." "They live together now," Salvador added. "Didn’t they just start dating?" Tommy asked. Tiger answered, "Yeah... A couple of WEEKS ago." Unhappy about the news, Tommy objects to Carolyn moving in wit...
Gordie: Fuck writing, I don't want to be a writer. It's stupid. It's a stupid waste of time. Chris: That's your dad talking. Gordie: Bullshit. Chris: Bull true. Chris: I know how your dad feels about you. He doesn't give a shit about you. Denny was t...
Humphrey: So, just listen. Now, did I or did I not... do... vaginal... juices? Pupils: Mmm. Mmm. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Humphrey: Name two ways of getting them flowing, Watson. Watson: R - rubbing the clitoris, sir? Humphrey: What's wrong with a kiss, b...
Jake La Motta: Don't give me that look, Joey. I gotta accept your answer, you know? But If I hear anything, I swear on our mother I'm gonna kill somebody. I'm gonna kill somebody, Joey. Joey LaMotta: [angrily] Well go ahead and kill if you're a tough...
Joey LaMotta: Hey Jack, I just explained the whole thing to you didn't I. It was between me and Salvy. If it had anything to do with Vicki I would've told you about it. Jake La Motta: That's not what I heard Joey. Joey LaMotta: What do you mean that'...
Mr. Pink: We were set up. The cops were waiting for us. Nice Guy Eddie: What? Nobody set anybody up. Mr. Pink: The cops were there waiting for us! Nice Guy Eddie: Bull shit! Mr. Pink: Hey, fuck you, man! You weren't there - we were! And I'm tellin' y...
Among these temperamentally unhappy campers are "reactant" personalities, who focus on what they often wrongly perceive as others' attempts to control them. In one experiment, some of these touchy individuals were asked to think of two people they kn...
There were, of course, other heroes, little ones who did little things to help people get through: merchants who let profits disappear rather than lay off clerks, store owners who accepted teachers' scrip at face value not knowing if the state would ...
Joey LaMotta: She ain't the kind of girl you just fuck and forget about, this girl. Jake La Motta: Joey, how many times I gotta tell ya? Why're you always cursin' when I'm talkin' to you? Don't do it around me. Do it around your friends. Joey LaMotta...
Wade sighed. “I’ll never understand why women wear bras to start with. They look uncomfortable as hell.” “They’re not that bad.” “Turn around so I can fasten the damn thing for you.” She refused to let go. Suddenly it seemed important...
Jake La Motta: Did you fuck my wife? Joey LaMotta: What? Jake La Motta: Did you fuck my wife? Joey LaMotta: [pauses] How do you ask me that? I'm your brother and you ask me that? Where do you get you're balls big enough to ask me that? Jake La Motta:...
Busch: Three guys with RPGs! Coming up on your side! Now! [Somalis fire the RPG, striking Super 6-1's tail rotor. 6-1 is now spinning out of control] Cliff Wolcott: Stay with it! Cliff Wolcott: [on radio] This is 6-1. I'm hit. I'm hit. Matthews: Supe...
There are times when I long to sweep away half the things I am expected to learn; for the overtaxed mind cannot enjoy the treasure it has secured at the greatest cost. ... When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and exami...
Jake La Motta: [talks about Janiro] I'm gonna open his hole like this. Please excuse my French. I'm gonna make him suffer. I'm gonna make his mother wish she never had him - make him into dog meat... He's a nice, a nice kid. He's a pretty kid, too. I...
