I noticed some scratch marks and faded blood stains high up on a wall. “What happened there?” “An inmate must have tried to escape. I saw a guy use two suction devices like the ones used to carry glass sheets to help lever himself up. He reache...
Fairytales teach children that the world is fraught with danger, including life-threatening danger; but by being clever (always), honest (as a rule, but with common-sense exceptions), courteous (especially to the elderly, no matter their apparent soc...
There is a fairly common pattern in this field where folks go through about three distinct stages. it true of other areas. 1. You know that you know nothing: here you pretty much just use someone else's canned workouts since you don't know what you'r...
She was murdered by rebels.' He took in her unconcealed look of shock. 'So there you go. Something for you to celebrate.' Magnus turned away from her, ready to find solace in his chambers, but the princess grabbed his arm to stop him. He sent a dark ...
The true elitists in the literary world are the ones who have become annoyed by literary ambition in any form, who have converted the very meaning of ambition so totally that it now registers as an act of disdain, a hostility to the poor common reade...
The desire to “do more in less time” is not a neutral force in our culture; it is the handmaiden of miserable experts, specialists, and leaders. Not everyone has rushed to become efficient. Something else exists on the periphery: an inefficient u...
With modern technology it is the easiest of tasks for a media, guided by a narrow group of political manipulators, to speak constantly of democracy and freedom while urging regime changes everywhere on earth but at home. A curious condition of a repu...
There are people everywhere who form a Fourth World, or a diaspora of their own. They are the lordly ones! They come in all colors. They can be Christians or Hindus or Muslims or Jews or pagans or atheists. They can be young or old, men or women, sol...
As is perhaps obvious, Morris Zapp had no great esteem for his fellow-labourers in the vineyards of literature. They seemed to him vague, fickle, irresponsible creatures, who wallowed in relativism like hippopotami in mud, with their nostrils barely ...
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Where the hell are you from anyway, private? Private Cowboy: Sir, Texas, sir. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Holy dog shit! Texas? Only steers and queers come from Texas, Private Cowboy, and you don't look much like a steer to me...
Ginny: [helping a speechless and queasy looking Ron into the common room] It's ok, Ron. It's alright. It doesn't matter. Harry: What happened to you? Ginny: He just asked Fleur Delacour out. Hermione: What? Harry: What did she say? Hermione: No, of c...
General Allenby: What about your Arab friends? What about them? T.E. Lawrence: I have no Arab friends. I don't want Arab friends ! General Allenby: What in Hell do you want, Lawrence? T.E. Lawrence: I told you! I just want my ration of common humanit...
Jack Crabb: Uh, Mr. Hickock, how many men have you... gunned down? Wild Bill Hickock: I don't rightly remember. You? Jack Crabb: Oh, about two dozen. Wild Bill Hickock: Is that a fact? Jack Crabb: [voiceover] No, it wasn't a fact. In my gunfighter pe...
[holding the Ring out to Frodo after dropping it in the fire] Gandalf: Hold out your hand, Frodo. It's quite cool. [Drops the Ring into Frodo's palm] Gandalf: What do you see? Can you see anything? Frodo: Nothing. There's nothing. [Gandalf sighs in r...
Ed: Frank. Frank: Huh? Ed: This hair. Frank: Yeah. Ed: You ever wonder about it? Frank: Whuddya mean? Ed: I don't know... How it keeps on coming. It just keeps growing. Frank: Yeah, lucky for us, huh pal? Ed: No, I mean it's growing, it's part of us....
Paddy Conlon: Come on, kiddo. I've been there. I've done it. I've seen it. You can trust me. I'll understand. Tom Conlon: Spare me the compassionate father routine, Pop. The suit don't fit. Paddy Conlon: I'm really trying here, Tommy. Tom Conlon: You...
Margo Channing: Funny business, a woman's career - the things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman. That's one career all females have in common, whether we li...
Baymax: [to Hiro, who's stuck and buried under a pile of action figures] On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain? Hiro: [irritated] Zero. Baymax: It is alright to cry. Hiro: No! No, no, no, no, no! Baymax: [picks up Hiro and holds him ...
Jason Bourne: Whatever we do, we have to do it together. We have to be... Marie: We? The only thing we had in common was that neither one of us knew who you were! We are past that now. Jason Bourne: Marie! Listen to me! The police will find us, and t...
Now that the wars are coming to an end, I wish you to prosper in peace. May all mortals from now on live like one people in concord and for mutual advancement. Consider the world as your country, with laws common to all and where the best will govern...
Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor...