When I was twelve, my sixth-grade English class went on a field trip to see Franco Zeffirelli’s film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. From that moment forward I dreamed that someday I’d meet my own Juliet. I’d marry her and I wou...
Commenting acidly on a writer whom I perhaps too naively admired, my old classics teacher put on his best sneer to ask: 'Wouldn't you say, Hitchens, that his writing was somewhat ?' This lofty schoolmaster employed my name sarcastically, and stressed...
If I understand you rightly, you had formed a surmise of such horror as I have hardly words to-- Dear Miss Morland, consider the dreadful nature of the suspicions you have entertained. What have you been judging from? Remember the country and the age...
Ace Speck: [as Dr. Schultz questions Django] Hey! Stop talking to him like that. Dr. King Schultz: [looks to Ace] Like what? Ace Speck: Like that. Dr. King Schultz: My dear sir, I am simply trying to ascertain... Ace Speck: Speak English, goddamn it....
Archie: You make me feel free. Wanda: Free? Archie: Wanda, do you have any idea what it's like being English? Being so correct all the time, being so stifled by this dread of, of doing the wrong thing, of saying to someone "Are you married?" and hear...
Margaret Campbell: You're an honor student. If you transfer to Mrs. Gruwell's class, think how that'll reflect on your records. Victoria: It doesn't matter to me, my grades will still be the same. Look, Ms. Campbell, when I first transferred to this ...
Archy Hamilton: You of all people should be going. Frank Dunne: Why me of all people? Archy Hamilton: 'Cause you're an athlete. Frank Dunne: [laughs] What's that got to do with it? Archy Hamilton: I've got mates who'd be lucky to do the hundred in tw...
Behrani: [to Kathy] You think you can frighten me? You think you can frighten me with your stupid deputy coming here telling me lies? [Grabs Kathy by the arm and frog-marches her down the path] Behrani: What do you think I am? Tell me that. Am I stup...
Iris Henderson: I was having tea about an hour ago with an English lady. You saw her, didn't you? Charters: Well, I don't know, I mean, I was talking to my friend, wasn't I? Caldicott: Indubitably. Iris Henderson: Yes, but you were sitting at the nex...
Walt Disney: We can't make the picture without the color red. The film is set in London, for Pete's sake! P.L. Travers: And? Walt Disney: Well, there's buses and mailboxes and guard's uniforms and things - Heck, the English flag! P.L. Travers: I unde...
[first lines] Title Card: 1930. Prohibition has transformed Chicago into a City at War. Rival gangs compete for control of the city's billion dollar empire of illegal alcohol, enforcing their will with the hand grenade and tommy gun. It is the time o...
Damien: How many British soldiers in the country, Tim? Tim: Too many. Damien: How many? Teddy: About ten thousand, Damien. Damien: Ten Thousand. Tans, artillery units, machine-gun car, cavalry... Teddy: And many more besides. What's your point, Damie...
Kostya Novotny: I pick her out special just for you. Monty Brogan: The last girl you picked out special for me had three teeth, all in the back. Kostya Novotny: Funny you should say that. [laughs] Monty Brogan: Why? Why is it funny I should say that?...
Selfridge: Look. You're supposed to be winning the hearts and minds of the natives. Isn't that the whole point of your little puppet show? If you walk like them, you talk like them, they'll trust you. We build them a school, teach them English. But a...
Marie Derry: What do you think I was doing all those years? Fred Derry: I don't know, babe, but I can guess. Marie Derry: Go ahead. Guess your head off. I could do some guessing myself. What were you up to in London and Paris and all those places? I'...
Squinting in the darkness Anya could just make out a strange curving symbol scratched into the bark. Baba Zosia scored a line through it, disfiguring the symbol. Anya felt something in the air change and give, like the forest had let out a breath it ...
While Nape was making the bread and Dryas boiling the ram, Daphnis and Chloe had time to go forth as far as the ivy-bush; and when he had set his snares again and pricked his lime-twigs, they not only catched good store of birds, but had a sweet coll...
When I was a teenager in Boston, a man on the subway handed me a card printed with tiny pictures of hands spelling out the alphabet in sign language. I AM DEAF, said the card. You were supposed to give the man some money in exchange. I have thought o...
Oh, but once my memories had pulsed with the blood-heat of life. In desperation, I forced myself to recall that once, I had walked with kings and conversed in languages never heard in this land. Once I had stood at the prow of a Sea Wolf ship and sai...
To say exactly what one means, even to one's own private satisfaction, is difficult. To say exactly what one means and to involve another person is harder still. Communication between you and me relies on assumptions, associations, commonalities and ...
This is where I go, when I go: It's a room with no windows and no doors, and walls that are thin enough for me to see and hear everything but too thick to break through. I'm there, but I'm not there. I am pounding to be let out, but nobody can hear m...
