When my head is in the typewriter the last thing on my mind is some imaginary reader. I don’t have an audience; I have a set of standards. But when I think of my work out in the world, written and published, I like to imagine it’s being read by s...
I have spent years ... clinging to the understanding that I was a defective biological unit .... This may truly be a valuable perspective for those who observe mental illness, but for me, as a subject, this tree bore only dry and tasteless fruit ...�...
We live in a world in which people are censured, demoted, imprisoned, beheaded, simply because they have opened their mouths, flapped their lips, and vibrated some air. Yes, those vibrations can make us feel sad or stupid or alienated. Tough shit. Th...
sufferers of depression, who can elect to keep their feelings private, experience chronic, unremitting emotional alienation. Each moment spent “passing” as normal deepens the sense of disconnection generated by depression in the first instance. I...
To love is a natural instinct. To be loved is “something”. To be loved like crazy, like their life depends on you is a once-in-a-lifetime feeling. How many of us can keep their right hand on their heart and say that they have actually experienced...
Literary criticism can be no more than a reasoned account of the feeling produced upon the critic by the book he is criticizing. Criticism can never be a science: it is, in the first place, much too personal, and in the second, it is concerned with v...
And yet it was also true that the tumor could not be removed by our doctor, and as a result of that a strange medication had been given him that enabled my brother to become even more of an enigma than he was before, and as a result of that there cam...
When the clock stops on a life, all things emanating from it become precious, finite, and cordoned off for preservation. Each aspect of the dead person is removed from the flux of the everyday, which, of course, is where we miss him most. The quarant...
Morelli was wearing a blazer over a black knit shirt, He took a seat, and his jacket swung wide, exposing the gun at his hip. "Nice piece!" Grandma said. "What is it? Is that a forty-five?" "It's a nine- millimeter." "Don't suppose you'd let me see i...
Be the kind of person that others admire, can count on, trust and enjoy spending time with. After you have developed that reputation, people will start to ask you what you do, and will want to work with you on the things that matter. When you focus o...
Emmeline Finch: Oh Russell, I feel sick. J. Russell Finch: Now take it easy honey, these things happen ya know. Mrs. Marcus: Now what kind of an attitude is that, "these things happen"? They only happen because this whole country is just full of peop...
Ernst Janning: We have fallen on happy times, Herr Hahn. In old times it would have made your day if I'd deigned to say good morning to you. Now that we are here in this place together... you feel obliged to tell me what to do with my life... Listen ...
Madame de Rosemonde: I'm sorry to say this, but, those who are most worthy of love are never made happy by it. Madame Marie de Tourvel: But, why? Why should that be? Madame de Rosemonde: Do you still think men love the way we do? No... men enjoy the ...
John Blake: Not a lot of people know what it feels like to be angry, in your bones. I mean, they understand, foster parents, everybody understands, for awhile. Then they want the angry little kid to do something he knows he can't do, move on. So afte...
Mr. X: The girls have heard this before but... 14 years ago I had an operation on my left arm here. The doctors said that I wouldn't be able to ever use it. But what the hell do they know, I said. So I rubbed it for a half-hour every day. And slowly ...
[after Bill shoots the golf cart, triggering Frank's heart attack] Bill Foster: What's wrong? Frank: My - heart... Bill Foster: Well, what can I do about it? Frank: Pills... get p-pills... Bill Foster: Where are your pills? [Frank points towards the ...
Forrest Gump: Those must be comfortable shoes, I bet you could walk all day in shoes like those and not feel a thing. Nurse at Park Bench: My feet hurt. Forrest Gump: My momma always said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they g...
[calling the police about an intruder] Jeannie: There is an intruder - male, Caucasian, possibly armed, certainly weird - in my kitchen... M-my-my-my name is Bueller... [pause] Jeannie: Look, it's real nice that you hope my brother is feeling better,...
Lambeau: Yeah, you were smarter than me then, and you're smarter than me now. So, don't blame me for how your life turned out. Sean: I don't blame you! It's not about you, you mathematical dick! It's about the boy! He's a good kid! And I won't see yo...
Andrew Largeman: They sent me to boarding school because they thought I might be dangerous. [mocking Sam] Andrew Largeman: Oh, are you freaked out? You're like so freaked out. You're like running for the door. You can go, it's okay, don't feel bad. S...
Blondie: [watching the soldiers fighting on the bridge] I have a feeling it's really gonna be a good, long battle. Tuco: Blondie, the money's on the other side of the river. Blondie: Oh? Where? Tuco: Amigo, I said on the other side, and that's enough...