Despite the variety and the differences, and however much we proclaim the contrary, what the media produce is neither spontaneous nor completely “free:” “news” does not just happen, pictures and ideas do not merely spring from reality into ou...
Bliss—a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious—lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a bored...
Literary fiction and poetry are real marginalized right now. There's a fallacy that some of my friends sometimes fall into, the ol' "The audience is stupid. The audience only wants to go this deep. Poor us, we're marginalized because of TV, the great...
You and your scars. Please! You don't kill youself like this!" I gesture, holding a wrist turned up to the ceiling, then pretending to cut across it with my other hand. "That's just a cry for help. That's just attention. Everbody knows that. Cutting ...
Content is not mere facts, drummed into tender little minds under the relentless pounding of rote learning. Content--even the date of the Quebec Act, Confederation, or the Battle of Vimy Ridge, or the name of the first prime minister-- is cultural ca...
Ordell Robbie: Goddamn girl, you gettin' high already? It's just 2 o'clock! Melanie: [chuckling] It's that late? Ordell Robbie: You know you smoke too much of that shit, that shit gonna rob you of your own ambition. Melanie: Not if your ambition is t...
Dr. Millard Rausch, Scientist: We must think logically. We must deal with his crisis logically, with calm and unemotional response! We have to remain rational. We have to remain logical. TV Commentator: Scientists like you always think that way. That...
Cameron: [Ferris slowly pulls the Ferrari out of the garage] No! Ferris, forget it! You're just gonna have to think of somethin' else. I'm puttin' my foot down. [Ferris keeps driving] Cameron: How bout we rent a nice Cadillac? My treat! We could call...
Sam: Hey, I recognize you. Andrew Largeman: Oh, did you go to Columbia High? Sam: No, not from high school, from TV. Didn't you play the retarded quarterback? Andrew Largeman: Yeah. Sam: Are you really retarded? Andrew Largeman: No. Sam: Ooh, great j...
Norm: Now look, I've had a marvelous idea. Just for once, let's all try to behave like ordinary, respectable citizens. Let's not cause any trouble, pull any strokes, or do anything I'm gonna be sorry for. Especially tomorrow at that television theate...
[Frederick is talking about TV] Frederick: You see the whole culture. Nazis, deodorant salesmen, wrestlers, beauty contests, a talk show. Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling? But the worst are the fundamentalist preachers. Thir...
The Bride: Now, the incident that happened at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel that put this whole gory story into motion, has since become legend. "Massacre At Two Pines". That's what the newspapers called it. The local TV news called it, "The El Paso, ...
Babe: Listen, I want you to rob my apartment. Melendez: [laughs] Why? Babe: There are some guys out there after me, I got a gun in my desk drawer, and I want you to get me some clothes. Melendez: What's in there for me, man? Babe: I got a TV set, I g...
Diane: Sweetheart, last night, when you said "They're here'... Carol Anne: Can I take my goldfish to school? Diane: Sweetheart, do you remember last night when you woke up, and you said "They're here'? Carol Anne: Uh huh. Diane: Well, who did you mea...
[Location: on a back road, nineteen minutes to eleven o'clock] Charlie: We're not in the air, we're not on the highway, I'm on some shit secondary road. I gotta make up some time. I have to get to LA, I should've been there this afternoon, my busines...
John Glenn: Annie, listen to me, OK? You listening? If you don't want the Vice President or the TV networks or anybody else to come into the house, then that's it, as far as I'm concerned. They are NOT coming in, and I will back you all the way, a hu...
Emile: W-w-wait. You... read? Remy: Well, not... excessively. Emile: Oh, man. Does dad know? Remy: You could fill a book - a lot of books - with things Dad doesn't know. And they have. Which is why I read. Which is also our secret. Emile: I don't lik...
Russell: I've never been in a floating house before. [Russell sees a picture of Ellie and laughs] Russell: Goggles. Look at this stuff. Wow! You're going on a trip? [Russell picks up a picture of Paradise Falls and reads from it] Russell: "Paradise F...
Max Belfort: [hears a phone] Who the fuck has the goddamn gall to call this house on a Tuesday night? God damn it! Leah Belfort: [watching TV] You're going to miss it! Max Belfort: Tell me something I don't know, I wait all week for the fucking Equal...
[With other poor black seniors, watching Chance on TV] Louise: It's for sure a white man's world in America. Look here: I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant. And I'll say right now, he never learned to read and write. No, sir. Had no...
She had not heard him enter, and hardly realized his presence there. She was yawning, and he saw the red interior of her mouth as if it had been a snake's. She had stretched one arm so high above her coiled-up cable of hair that he could see its sati...
