I think a fictional invention grows according to its own development, not the author's. Characters in fiction are not simply as alive as you and me, they are more alive. Becky Sharp, Elizabeth Bennett, and Don Quixote may not outlive the burning out ...
Whenever you feel me, just call me With the silence of your soul, and with the softness of your love. I will be with you, With the magic of my love. You may not see me, But you will feel me. You will hear my song In the depth of your heart.
Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World Series catch, and then dashing off to play stickball in the street with his teenage pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying, 'I consider myself the luckiest...
Witch, do this for me, Find me a moon made of longing. Then cut it sliver thin, and having cut it, hang it high above my beloved's house, so that she may look up tonight and see it, and seeing it, sigh for me as I sigh for her, moon or no moon.
There's no such thing as the contemporary novel. Before I seem the complete reactionary, let me add that I've happily joined in many discussions about 'the contemporary novel' where what that usually, unproblematically means is novels that have appea...
I need not repeat familiar arguments about the waste of teachers' time, and the difficulties thrown in the way of English children trying to learn their own language; or the fact that nobody without a visual memory for words ever succeeds in spelling...
Dr. King said, 'We are all tied together in a garment of mutual destiny.' Which says to me no matter how well I may be doing in Hollywood, if a young brother or sister in Louisiana, the South Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, South Central Los Angele...
I recall the story of the philosopher and the theologian... The two were engaged in disputation and the theologian used the old quip about a philosopher resembling a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat — which wasn't there. ‘That m...
It's kind of a mysterious process, but something will catch my attention, and I'll make a note about it. I may even write a few pages about it, and then I'll put it aside, but I'll sort of keep it in mind. Then as time goes on, other things will gath...
[as he goes to hand Renault a bribe] Jan Brandel: Captain Renault... may I? Captain Renault: Oh no! Not here please! Come to my office tomorrow morning. We'll do everything businesslike. Jan Brandel: We'll be there at six! Captain Renault: I'll be th...
Arms Fair Salesman: Sir! Sir, may I interest you in the shoulder fired S-37 surface-to-air missle? It's the old Chinese model. Not so effective against modern military aircraft but deadly if used against a commerical airliner.
German officer: [on the Battle of Kasserine Pass] The Americans were under the command of British General Anderson. [smiles broadly] German officer: American soldiers and British generals - the worst of both worlds! Field Marshal Erwin Rommel: [curtl...
[last lines] Lando: Princess, we'll find Han. I promise. Luke: Chewie, I'll be waiting for your signal. Take care, you two. May the force be with you.
Darth Vader: You may take Captain Solo to Jabba the Hutt after I have Skywalker. Boba Fett: He's no good to me dead. Darth Vader: He will not be permanently damaged.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all. This job goes south, there well may not be another. So here is us, on the raggedy edge. Don't push me, and I won't push you. Dong le ma?
MacReady: Somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be. Right now that may be one or two of us. By spring, it could be all of us. Childs: So, how do we know who's human? If I was an imitation, a perfect imitation, how would you know if it was re...
Grown-ups and children are not readily encouraged to unearth the power of words. Adults are repeatedly assured a picture is worth a thousand of them, while the playground response to almost any verbal taunt is 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, b...
You may not see massive UFO exhibits at your local science museum, but there's no dearth of saucer stories infesting my email. Every day, I receive several reports of alien sightings, extraterrestrial plans for Earth, and agitated screeds about the r...
It may be the optimist in me, but I think America has a uniquely powerful and capacious glue internally. The American identity has always been ethnically and religiously neutral, so within one generation you have Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, C...
Mortimer Brewster: [introducing Teddy to Gilchrist] Oh, uh, Mr. President, may I have the pleasure of introducing... Teddy Brewster: Dr. Livingstone! Dr. Gilchrist: Livingstone? Mortimer Brewster: Yeah, well, that's what he presumes.
[on Wex's drawing] Busch: Looks good. Wex: It's improving. Busch: But if I may make a suggestion... more of an observation. Wex: Go ahead. Busch: It's a children's book. They aren't supposed to scare the living shit out of the children.
