I grew excited when I realized this basic asymmetry implied that nothing – no evidence, no information, no facts or data – connected me to the stranger except for the evidence of my own personal observations which remained private as long as I ke...
I suppose it must be admitted that I was raised in a "dysfunctional" family, but in truth, I do not think I had any sense of that as I was growing up. Probably part of the reason was that all of my extended kin had families at least as dysfunctional ...
It looks like fallen petals, and it looks like rain. It looks like the sounds the birds make at dawn. It looks like the aisle of grocery stores when a song I love suddenly begins to play overhead, and I cannot help but dance a little dance. It looks ...
[first lines] Andrea Phillips: Okay. You all right? Captain Richard Phillips: Yeah. Andrea Phillips: You'd think these trips would get easier, but it's just the opposite. Captain Richard Phillips: Well, I feel the same way, Ange. Andrea Phillips: I k...
John Milton: It's your wife, man. She's sick, she needs you... she's got to come first. Ah, wait a minute, wait a minute. You mean the possibility of leaving this case has never even entered you mind? Kevin Lomax: You know what scares me? I quit the ...
Deputy Lester: [referring to the mistreatment of Rambo] I was just talking to Mitch, and he said that Gault and a couple of the deputies were... a little hard on the guy. State Police Capt. Dave Kern: Assholes! Teasle: It doesn't make one goddamn bit...
Judge Randolph: [Judge Randolph reading the verdict] Lance Corporal Dawson, Private First Class Downey. [Two defendants rises] Judge Randolph: On the charge of murder, the members find the accused not guilty. On the charge of conspiracy to commit mur...
Adenoid Hynkel: Strange, these strike leaders, they're all brunettes. Not a blonde amongst them. Garbitsch: Brunettes are trouble makers. They're worse than the Jews. Adenoid Hynkel: Then wipe them out. Garbitsch: Start small. Not so fast. We get rid...
[first lines] Narrator: At exactly 3:45 on that Saturday afternoon in the last week of September, Marvin Unger was, perhaps, the only one among the hundred thousand people at the track who felt no thrill at the running of the fifth race. He was total...
[first lines] Radio announcer: President Truman'll be here tomorrow, so all you folks in Dallas turn out, chuh hear? This is Cowboy Rhythms on KTRN, Wichita Falls, here's Hank Williams' big hit tune, "Cold Cold Heart". Sam the Lion: You ain't ever go...
Nick: [on phone] Slevin, do you know what time it is? Slevin: Yeah, I'm at the airport. Are you sure you want me to come out? Nick: Yeah, just think... two weeks in New York and the only Kelly you'll remember is the Kelly who gave you your first hand...
Mona Lisa Vito: So what's your problem? Vinny Gambini: My problem is, I wanted to win my first case without any help from anybody. Mona Lisa Vito: Well, I guess that plan's moot. Vinny Gambini: Yeah. Mona Lisa Vito: You know, this could be a sign of ...
Captain Paul Prescott: [about Alicia] I don't like this, I don't like her coming here. Walter Beardsley: She's had me worried for some time. A woman of that sort. Devlin: What sort is that, Mr. Beardsley? Walter Beardsley: Oh, I don't think any of us...
William Somerset: I meant to ask you something before, when we spoke on the phone: Why here? David Mills: I don't follow. William Somerset: Why all the effort to get transferred? It's the first question that popped into my head. David Mills: I guess ...
Cosmo Brown: Why bother to shoot this film? Why not release the old one under a new title? You've seen one, you've seen them all. Don Lockwood: Hey, what'd you say that for? Cosmo Brown: What's the matter? Don Lockwood: That's what that Kathy Selden ...
[first lines] Narrator: The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had ...
Bob Woodward: Segretti crisscrossed the country, at least a dozen times. And always stayed in cities where there were Democratic primaries. Carl Bernstein: So if the break-in was just one incident in a campaign of sabotage that began a whole year bef...
[first lines] C.C. Baxter: [narrating] On November 1st, 1959, the population of New York City was 8,042,783. If you laid all these people end to end, figuring an average height of five feet six and a half inches, they would reach from Times Square to...
Then what is good? The obsessive interest in human affairs, plus a certain amount of compassion and moral conviction, that first made the experience of living something that must be translated into pigment or music or bodily movement or poetry or pro...
The English major is, first of all, a reader. She's got a book pup-tented in front of her nose many hours a day; her Kindle glows softly late into the night. But there are readers and there are readers. There are people who read to anesthetize themse...
That’s part of being an endurance athlete. Who in their right mind wouldn’t find excuses to escape an hour or more of suffering? Excuses always lead to a reckoning. We find reasons not to take that first step out the door, just as we find ways to...