I do not like postmodernism, postapocalyptic settings, postmortem narrators, or magic realism. I rarely respond to supposedly clever formal devices, multiple fonts, pictures where they shouldn't be—basically, gimmicks of any kind. I find literary f...
Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door. His name, as I ought to have told you before, Is really Asparagus. That's such a fuss To pronounce, that we usually call him just Gus. His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake, And he suffers from palsy that mak...
The poor young man must work for his bread; he eats; when he has eaten, he has nothing left but reverie. He enters God's theater free; he sees the sky, space, the stars, the flowers, the children, the humanity in which he suffers, the creation in whi...
Whoever is in charge of such things had been sparing with his blessings on the moment Benno was born. He had neither looks nor wit nor skill. He was not large or strong, he could not sing; in fact, he had a stammer, which on most occasions left him s...
It may seem to you that your life is over now. Your future without the person you love is no future at all. Death is a head-on collision with your plans. But everything in life--the gold fillings of your teeth, the cotton of your sheets, the air you ...
Sometimes we are written down in books. Or, someone tells a story in which our name figures. And so we live on, through someone else’s voice… These are the indelible marks others make of us, like the watermarks of high tides, names carved into ba...
At the edge of the still, dark pool that was the sea, at the brimming edge of freedom where no boat was to be seen, she spoke the first words of the few they were to exchange. ‘I cannot swim. You know it?” In the dark she saw the flash of his smi...
I probably won’t play a song the same way tomorrow as I play it today. Only a pitchman says the same thing the same way twice, without varying a word. If music is a language, why don’t people use it with the same subtlety, nuance, and facility as...
I like for you to be still It is as though you are absent And you hear me from far away And my voice does not touch you It seems as though your eyes had flown away And it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth As all things are filled with my soul Y...
I love bookshelves, and stacks of books, spines, typography, and the feel of pages between my fingertips. I love bookmarks, and old bindings, and stars in margins next to beautiful passages. I love exuberant underlinings that recall to me a swoon of ...
The Vagabond Give to me the life I love, Let the lave go by me, Give the jolly heaven above And the byway nigh me. Bed in the bush with stars to see, Bread I dip in the river - There's the life for a man like me, There's the life for ever. Let the bl...
Isaac: She said she wanted to break up with me before the surgery, 'cause she couldn't handle it. I'm about to lose my eyesight and SHE can't handle it. I kept saying "always" to her, you know, like always. And she kept talking over me and not saying...
Annie Wilkes: Here's your pills. Paul Sheldon: Annie? Annie, what is it? Annie Wilkes: The rain. Sometimes it gives me the blues. When you first came here, I only loved the writer part of Paul Sheldon. Now I know I love the rest of him, too. I know y...
Princess Leia: Han, we need you. Han Solo: We need? Princess Leia: Yes. Han Solo: Well, what about YOU need? Princess Leia: I need? I don't know what you are talking about. Han Solo: You probably don't. Princess Leia: And what precisely am I supposed...
Lt. Barclay: Commander, this is what we're thinking of using to replace the damaged warp plasma conduit. [smiles at Cochrane] Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge: [examines the unit] Yeah, Reg... yeah, that's good. But you're going to need to reinfo...
Obi-Wan Kenobi: You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind, until now, until now you've become the very thing you swore to destroy. Anakin Skywalker: Don't lecture me, Obi-Wan! I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side a...
Anakin Skywalker: [after killing Mace Windu and in disarray] What have I done? Darth Sidious: You are fulfilling your destiny, Anakin. Become my apprentice. Learn to use the dark side of the Force. There's no turning back now. Anakin Skywalker: I wil...
Supreme Chancellor: [Anakin cuts off Dooku's hands ending the battle. Anakin catches Dooku's lightsabre and ignites it and puts both lightsabres to his neck] Good, Anakin, good. Kill him. [Dooku looks at Palpatine in shock] Supreme Chancellor: Kill h...
Kirk: [highly agitated and suffering side effects from McCoy hypospray] Uhura! Uhura! Lt. Nyota Uhura: Kirk? What are you doing here? Kirk: The transmission from the Klingon prison planet. What exactly... Lt. Nyota Uhura: Oh, my God, what's wrong wit...
James T. Kirk: [to Spock] The test itself is a cheat, isn't it? I mean, you programmed it to be unwinnable. Spock: Your argument precludes the possibility of a no-win scenario. James T. Kirk: I don't believe in no-win scenarios. Spock: Then not only ...
Luke Skywalker: You know, I think that R2 unit we bought may have been stolen. Uncle Owen: What makes you think that? Luke Skywalker: Well, I stumbled across a recording while I was cleaning him. He says that he belongs to someone named Obi-Wan Kenob...
