There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have relinquished belief only with regret. To this I reply: who wishes that there was a permanent, unalterable celestial de...
I didn't look over my shoulder; there wasn't a sound behind me on the pavement, but I knew he was coming slowly after me. The crawl of the skin up and down my back told me. Little needles of warning that gathered at the back of my skull told me. I'd ...
Maybe awful things is how God speaks to us, Vernon thought, trudging up the lightless tunnel. Maybe folks don’t trust in good things no more. Maybe awful things is all God’s got to remind us he’s alive. Maybe war is God come to life in men. Ver...
A rural Venus, Selah rises from the gold foliage of the Sixhiboux River, sweeps petals of water from her skin. At once, clouds begin to sob for such beauty. Clothing drops like leaves. "No one makes poetry,my Mme. Butterfly, my Carmen, in Whylah,” ...
I had a dream about you. You were selling nickels for seven cents apiece, and I was only willing to pay six. Grandma thought I was foolish, but what did I care—she was dead! It’s like my grandpa always used to say, “I want to bill Billings one ...
I do so much writing. But so much of it never goes anywhere, never sees any light of day. I suppose that's like gardening in the basement. I don't publish so much of what I write. I just seem to plow it back into the soil of what I write after it, re...
When I was young, women were raped on the campus of a great university and the authorities responded by telling all the women students not to go out alone after dark or not to be out at all. Get in the house. (For women, confinement is always waiting...
Like most guys, I had bought into the stereotype that all feminists were white, lesbian, unattractive male bashers who hated all men. But after reading the work of these black feminists, I realized that this was far from the truth. After digging into...
There’s a lot of dirty theology out there, the religious counterpart to dirty politics and dirty business, I suppose. You might call it spiritual pornography—a kind of for-profit exploitative nakedness. It’s found in many of the same places as ...
Dr. Ellie Sattler: [after entering the maintenance shed] Mr Arnold? Mr Arnold? John, I'm in. John Hammond: [over Ellie's radio] Great. Now, ahead of you, is a metal staircase. Go down it. Dr. Ellie Sattler: OK, I'm going down. John Hammond: After 20 ...
Older Joe: My memory's cloudy. It's a cloud. Because my memories aren't really memories. They're just one possible eventuality now. And they grow clearer or cloudier as they become more are less likely. But then they get to the present moment, and th...
Young journalist: You can't be dead and still here. You can't not exist. Is there life after death? Nemo Nobody aged 118: [hearty laugh] "After death." How can you be so sure you even exist? [waves him closer] Nemo Nobody aged 118: You don't exist. N...
[In 1968, Noodles meets a familiar figure in heavy make-up... ] Noodles: Hello, Deborah. [For a long time, Deborah is silent and still] Noodles: Aren't you gonna say anything? Deborah Gelly: What is someone supposed to say after... after more than th...
[Barbie, wearing Ken's spacesuit with an opaque visor, comes to Bookworm to get the Buzz Lightyear instruction manual] Bookworm: [after rummaging in the shelves] All right, Ken. Here you go [he throws down the manual] Bookworm: But I don't know why i...
Shieks: [in Jethro's tent, Sephora's six sisters did a dance for five minutes. Three shieks remarks were spoken, to Moses, 90 seconds after their dance started] 1st shiek: A bride, a shawl... choose one, not all! [one minute later] Shieks: 2nd shiek:...
Johnny Ringo: [Ringo is trying to get McMasters to rejoin the Cowboys] So, there's nothin' I can say to get you to come back? Sherman McMasters: Not after what you done. Not after shootin' at the Earp's women. Johnny Ringo: All right then, I guess yo...
PROPHET LUQMAAN (A.S) HAS RIGHTLY SAID: "ITS BETTER TO GO AFTER A HUNGRY LOIN THAN TO RUN AFTER A WOMAN, BECAUSE IF LION TURNS BACK YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR LIFE AND IF WOMAN TURNS BACK YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR FAITH. THIS SAYING OF PROPHET IS NOT MEANT TO CRI...
Lampaxa Vorheridine? My Latin was never very good. What does that Translate to?" "Um, nothing. It wasn't named by an Earth scientist. According to the database it was named by a Cheblookan aboard a frieghter when it stopped here looking for fresh foo...
Nicholas broke the seal and scanned the contents. He looked up at Marcus with a chuckle. “Why, it appears you may get your wish for perpetual bachelorhood after all. She wants to end your engagement.” Marcus started from his chair. “The hell sh...
Whenever a journalist wrote an article about him that was critical in nature... he would invite them to a meal and at first they assumed they were in trouble for being critical of him. But they soon learned after arrival at his house for a meal that ...
Getting over it so soon? But the words are ambiguous. To say the patient is getting over it after an operation for appendicitis is one thing; after he’s had his leg off is quite another. After that operation either the wounded stump heals or the ma...
