By the time of the arrival of Islam in the early seventeenth century CE, what we now call the Middle East was divided between the Persian and Byzantine empires. But with the spread of this new religion from Arabia, a powerful empire emerged, and with...
When clouds of pain loom in the sky When a shadow of sadness flickers by When a tear finds its way to the eye When fear keeps the loneliness alive I try and console my heart Why is it that you cry? I ask This is only what life imparts These deep sile...
The Post is famous for its investigative journalism. It pours energy and investment and sweat and dollars into uncovering important stories. And then a bunch of websites summarize that [work] in about four minutes and readers can access that news for...
As an author the question I get asked the most is, “why do you write?” My knee jerk response is, “Because I love it,” which is true, but not the whole truth. So here is my revised response to that question; “I write for the thirteen year ol...
Our lives drifts along with normal things happening. Some ups, some downs, but nothing to go down in history about. Nothing so fantastic or terrible that it'll be told for a thousand years. “But because we grew up surrounded by big dramatic story a...
Fantasy elevates ordinary and eternal problems of young people into stories via the language of myth. It turns “No one really knows me” into “I’ve got a secret identity.” It turns “I don’t understand why other people act the way they do...
Desire overwhelmed me once she had gone. But it was not a desire for Homer. I had to return to the library. I could already smell the books' muskiness and in my mind turned over pages with as many differing textures as a forest; pages that were britt...
He had a book to finish. Ten-thousand words. The other ninety thousand had been difficult. This last tenth seemed impossible. His plot had become derailed. He was unable to see his way through the smoke and coke dust of a mythical railway track that ...
The only thing worth writing about is people. People. Human beings. Men and women whose individuality must be created, line by line, insight by insight. If you do not do it, the story is a failure. [...] There is no nobler chore in the universe than ...
If for a moment you are inclined to regard these taluses as mere draggled, chaotic dumps, climb to the top of one of them, and run down without any haggling, puttering hesitation, boldly jumping from boulder to boulder with even speed. You will then ...
As a result of these news stories, millions of people must have become aware of "niggardly," who otherwise would never have heard it, let alone thought to use it. If this is right, and the word has a new currency, it is probably not the currency I wo...
Eddie: Hey, let's beat it, man. I don't like it up here. Nic: What are ya, scared of heights? Eddie: I don't know. After what happened to Johnny Gobs... Nic: Hey, look, man. Johnny Gobs got ripped and took a walk off a roof, all right? No big loss. E...
Roy Neary: Is that it? Is that all you're gonna ask me? Well I got a couple of thousand goddamn questions, you know. I want to speak to someone in charge. I want to lodge a complaint. You have no right to make people crazy! You think I investigate ev...
Ralphie: Oooh fuuudge! Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Only I didn't say "Fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word! Mr. Parker: [stunned] *What* did you say? Ralphie: Uh, um... Mr. Parker: That'...
Mr. Parker: Get in the car. Get in the car. [Mother runs back inside] Mr. Parker: If we don't hurry, we're gonna miss all the good trees! Mr. Parker: [to the kids] Go on, go on. Ralphie as Adult: [narrating, as Mother switches off the leg lamp] My mo...
Ralphie as Adult: [regarding the note on his report] Oh, no! "You'll shoot your eye out!"? Ralphie: Oh, no! Ralphie as Adult: My mother must have gotten to Miss Shields! There could be no other explanation! Miss Shields, Mother: [in Ralphie's fantas...
Macaulay Connor: [speaking of Tracy] What are her leading characteristics? C. K. Dexter Haven: She has a horror of men who wear their hats in the house. Elizabeth (Liz) Imbrie: Leading characteristics to be filled in later. Macaulay Connor: I can fil...
Tracy Lord: I can't make you out at all now. Macaulay Connor: I thought I was easy. Tracy Lord: So did I. But you're not. You talk so big and tough and then you write like this. Which is which? Macaulay Connor: Both. I guess. Tracy Lord: No. No, I be...
Jack Torrance: Well, that is quite a story. Stuart Ullman: Yeah it is. It's still hard for me to believe it happened here. It did, and I think you can appreciate why I wanted to tell you about it. Jack Torrance: I certainly can and I also understand ...
Buzz: What's going on? Woody: Nothing that concerns you space man, just us toys. Buzz: I'd better have a look anyway. [he looks through Lenny the binoculars] Buzz: Why is that soldier strapped to an explosive device? Woody: [moves Lenny] That's why. ...
Verbal: He lets the last Hungarian go. He waits until his wife and kids are in the ground and then he goes after the rest of the mob. He kills their kids, he kills their wives, he kills their parents and their parents' friends. He burns down the hous...
