The thing about real life is, when you do something stupid, it normally costs you. In books the heroes can make as many mistakes as they like. It doesn't matter what they do, because everything works out in the end. They'll beat the bad guys and put ...
To retreat into oneself and meet nobody for hours on end—that is what one must be able to attain. To be alone, as one was alone as a child, when the grown-ups walked about involved in things which seemed great and important, because big people look...
If they were going to be like that, then I just wished they hadn't actually been German. It was too easy. Too obvious. It was like coming across an Irishman who actually was stupid, a mother-in-law who actually was fat, or an American businessman who...
The first thing anybody tells you about this business is to say what makes you unique and different, but I couldn’t and the very idea of it never sat well with me and after much deliberation, I finally realized why. Because, I’m not unique or dif...
Take any emotion—love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I’m going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions—if you don’t allow yourself to go all the way through them—you can never get to be...
Science has marched forward. But civilization’s values remain rooted in philosophies, religious traditions, and ethical frameworks devised many centuries ago. Even our economic system, capitalism, is half a millennium old. The first stock exchange ...
They had gathered at Eastcheap to wait. At this time of day, the marketplace ought to have been thronged with people looking for bargains, moving from stall to stall, examining the fresh fish, choosing the plumpest hens, buying candles and pepper and...
I would not choose to live in any age but my own; advances in medicine alone, and the consequent survival of children with access to these benefits, should preclude any temptation to trade for the past. But we cannot understand history if we saddle t...
I never asked Tolstoy to write for me, a little colored girl in Lorain, Ohio. I never asked [James] Joyce not to mention Catholicism or the world of Dublin. Never. And I don't know why I should be asked to explain your life to you. We have splendid w...
The thing people don't understand about an army is its great, unpunctuated wastes of inaction: you have to scavenge for food, you are camped out somewhere with a rising water level because your mad capitaine says so, you are shifted abruptly in the m...
Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him...
Anybody may blame me who likes, when I add further, that, now and then, when I took a walk by myself in the grounds; when I went down to the gates and looked through them along the road; or when, while Adele played with her nurse, and Mrs. Fairfax ma...
Ben: You know what's really great about baseball? Lindsey Meeks: Hmm? Ben: You can't fake it. You know, anything else in life you don't have to be great in - business, music, art - I mean you can get lucky. Lindsey Meeks: Really? Ben: Yeah, you can f...
Ordell Robbie: This you and me talking, is this like a lawyer-client thing, and you can't repeat nothing I tell you? Max Cherry: You're not my client until you get busted and I bond you out. Ordell Robbie: Well, if we ain't got no - what's that shit ...
Don Corleone: You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you, or my boy to me? I forgo the vengeance of my son. But I have selfish reasons. My youngest son was forced to leave this country because of this Sollozzo business...
[evaluating a site for their business] Dr. Peter Venkman: What do you think, Egon? Dr. Egon Spengler: I think this building should be condemned. There's serious metal fatigue in all the load-bearing members, the wiring is substandard, it's completely...
Henrik Vanger: I apologize if you've been having financial problems at the magazine due to Mikael's absence. Erika Berger: We'll work through them. Henrik Vanger: Are you sure? Martin Vanger: How long do you think you can hang on? Six months? Erika B...
[At the graduation ball] Todd: Hey, Rebecca. Rebecca: Oh, hi. Todd: So, we finally... Enid: What about me? Am I not even here? Todd: Hey, Enid. [he turns back to Rebecca] Todd: So, we finally made it, huh? Rebecca: Yeah. Todd: So, uh, where are you g...
[after Lester threatens Massoud with deportation in front of his family] Nadi: Give to me answer, Behrani. What did that man say about deporting? Behrani: He said nothing, Nadi. Nadi: Do not lie to me! I heard him! Tell to me, Behrani. [In Farsi] Nad...
Gandalf: I think you should leave the ring behind, Bilbo. Is that so hard? Bilbo: Well, no. [frowning] Bilbo: ...and yes. Now it comes to it, I don't feel like parting with it. It's mine, I found it. It came to me! Gandalf: There's no need to get ang...
[Dutch is talking to the General] Dutch: So why don't you use the regular army? What do you need us for? Dillon: 'Cause some damn fool accused you of being the best. [Dutch turns around and sees Dillon sitting in a chair in another room] Dutch: Dillo...
