For obvious reasons, the relationship between novelists, the reviewing establishment and critics in general is chronically, and often acutely, edgy. A kind of low-intensity warfare prevails, with outbreaks of savagery. It is partly an ownership issue...
If you're like most members of the Baby Boom generation, you decided somewhere along the line, probably after about four margaritas, to have children. This was inevitable. Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, has instilled within each of us a power...
In refugee camps around the world, I met people who were gone. They were still walking around but had lost so much that they were unable to claim any sort of identity. Others I met found who they truly were, and they generally found it through servic...
And one of my firmest conclusions is that we always think by seeking and drawing parallels to things we know from our past, and that we therefore communicate best when we exploit examples, analogies, and metaphors galore, when we avoid abstract gener...
Hate. The word is thrown around as uselessly and as often as love is, and is used as a means in which to accuse and inflict damage; the weak-in-argument (weak in general) use it to discredit those with whom they disagree rather than dissect the issue...
This is the mythosphere. It's made up of all the stories, theories and beliefs, legends, myths and hopes, that are generated here on Earth. As you can see, it's constantly growing and moving as people invent new tales to tell or find new things to be...
Our every action has consequences. Thoughts have consequences. Since actions start from thoughts I guess I can say technically that thoughts in general have consequences. In our thoughts we make dreams. So if I think I can do it, then my actions will...
Why do they [Americans] quarrel, why do they hate Negroes, Indians, even Germans, why do they not have science and poetry commensurate with themselves, why are there so many frauds and so much nonsense? I cannot soon give a solution to these question...
In science's pecking order, evolutionary biology lurks somewhere near the bottom, far closer to phrenology than to physics. For evolutionary biology is a historical science, laden with history's inevitable imponderables. We evolutionary biologists ca...
Like, in general I think people have very complicated reasons for wanting things, and we often have no idea whether we’re actually motivated by altruism or a desire to hook up or a search for answers or what. I always get annoyed when in books or m...
The feelings excited by improper art are kinetic, desire or loathing. Desire urges us to posses, to go to something; loathing urges us to abandon, to go from something. These are kinetic emotions. The arts which excite them, pornographical or didacti...
Bob Roland: Message from the front, sir. Rufus T. Firefly: Oh, I'm sick of messages from the front. Don't we ever get a message from the side? - What is it? Bob Roland: General Smith reports a gas attack. He wants to know what to do. Rufus T. Firefly...
Otto West: Look, you obviously don't know anything about intelligence work, lady. It's an X-K-Red-27 technique. Wendy: My father was in the Secret Service, Mr. Manfredjinsinjin, and I know perfectly well that you don't keep the general public informe...
Leo: Jin, you should know, there are more soldiers ahead. Jin: What! Leo: The general sent them. They don't know you either. You must stop them. There is nothing I can do. The order given to these soldiers is 'Fight to kill'. If you don't kill them t...
Yinsen: That doesn't look like the Jericho missile. Tony Stark: That's because it is a miniaturized arc reactor. I've got a big one powering my factory at home. Yinsen: What will it generate? Tony Stark: If my math is right - and it always is - three...
John Anderton: Why should I trust you? Dr. Iris Hineman: You shouldn't. You shouldn't trust anyone. Certainly not the Attorney General who just wants it all for himself, and not the young Federal agent, who wants your job. Not even the old man who ju...
President Merkin Muffley: I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler. General "Buck" Turgidson: Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American People than with your image in...
General "Buck" Turgidson: If the pilot's good, see, I mean if he's reeeally sharp, he can barrel that baby in so low... oh you oughta see it sometime. It's a sight. A big plane like a '52... varrrooom! Its jet exhaust... frying chickens in the barnya...
[first lines] [R2-D2 bleeps] Anakin Skywalker: Lock on to him R2. [R2-D2 responds with more bleeping] Anakin Skywalker: Master, General Grievous's ship is directly ahead. The one crawling with Vulture droids. Obi-Wan: Oh, I see it. Oh, this is going ...
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Odd Ball, do you copy? Clone Captain "Odd Ball" Davijaan: Copy Red Leader. Obi-Wan Kenobi: Mark your squad up behind me. Clone Captain "Odd Ball" Davijaan: We're on your tail General Kenobi. Set S-foils into attack position.
Major John Smith: Now, General Carnaby, perhaps you'll be good enough to give us your real name, rank and serial number. [shoots the chair] Gen. George Carnaby: [long pause, then] Cartwright Jones, Corporal, U.S. Army RA 123-025-3964. Major John Smit...
