Obituaries are just like biographies, only shorter. They remind us that interesting, successful people rarely lead orderly, linear lives. I defy you to find a single obituary that begins, "Jane Doe won the Nobel Prize in large part because she was ad...
I had a dream about you. You were guarding a bridge that I needed to cross. You asked if I had the proper paperwork, and I said I did, but I was just missing one signature. I said I couldn’t get it signed because I didn’t have a pen, I only had a...
I learned that, while rejection is the name of the game, I’m always going to be exactly what someone is looking for, eventually. Whether it is looks or personality, be it in the professional world or the dating world, what others have over me is ir...
She looked like she believed in something, or wanted to, and I hoped to hell it wasn’t God, not in the way The Dad believes, because all that does is make him forced and desperate. No, it was something else, not just that I saw a pretty girl and ju...
Wheels have been set in motion, and they have their own pace, to which we are...condemned. Each move is dictated by the previous one - that is the meaning of order. If we start being arbitrary it'll just be a shambles: at least, let us hope so. Becau...
What's the matter?" asked the teacher, seeing her bewildered face. "Why—why," said Elizabeth Ann, "I don't know what I am at all. If I'm second-grade arithmetic and seventh-grade reading and third-grade spelling, what grade am I?" The teacher laugh...
I feel like I’m going to get in a fight one day about the validity of falling in love so fast. Not a heated one because why would I give a shit if some other person gets it or not? Right now, it’s no longer the big flooding rush like when I saw h...
I had always liked staying the night with other families, having your own room with a freshly made bed, full of unfamiliar objects, with a towel and a washcloth nicely laid out, and from there straight into the heart of family life, despite there alw...
Just because something is addictive doesn't mean that you will get addicted to it. But . . . if your stomach ties up in knots while you count the seconds waiting for a phone call from that special someone . . . if you hear a loud buzzing in your ears...
Despite all the challenges facing higher education in America, from mounting student debt to grade inflation and erratic standards, our system is rightly the world's envy, and not just because our most revered universities remain on the cutting edge ...
What is MONEY? a piece of PAPER, a chunk of METAL or just some bits and bytes. It’s been called the ROOT OF ALL EVIL, but it can also help UPROOT ALL EVIL. It can’t buy you HAPPINESS or LOVE, but some fall in LOVE WITH IT anyway. It can CHANGE wh...
Very early on in writing the series, I remember a female journalist saying to me that Mrs Weasley, 'Well, you know, she’s just a mother.' And I was absolutely incensed by that comment. Now, I consider myself to be a feminist, and I’d always wante...
Delia: Charles, I will not stop living and breathing art just because you need to relax. Charles: Ha. Delia: I'm here with you. I will live with you in this hellhole, but I must express myself. If you don't let me gut out this house and make it my ow...
Mrs. Fox: [Kristofferson has just departed after Ash's comment] You have got twenty-nine minutes to come up with a proper apology. Ash: [snaps, gestures wildly] Me? *Me* have an apology? He gets a bandit hat? He just got here, and he gets a bandit ha...
Tony Stark: [recording a log as he tests his rocket boots] Day 11, Test 37, Configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, Dummy is still on fire safety. [turns to robot] Tony Stark: If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a ...
Cooper: [the ranger's engines are waterlogged, needing time to dry before they can leave Miller's planet] CASE! How much time? CASE: 45 to an hour. Cooper: Agh! [removes helmet] Cooper: The stuff of life, huh? What's this gonna cost us, Brand? Brand:...
Natalie: Tell me about her again. Leonard Shelby: Why? Natalie: Because you like to remember her. Leonard Shelby: She was beautiful. To me, she was perfect. Natalie: No, don't just recite the words. Close your eyes... and remember her. Leonard Shelby...
Harry Goldfarb: I always thought you were the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. Marion: Really? Harry Goldfarb: Ever since I first saw you. Marion: That's nice Harry. That makes me feel really good. you know other people have told me that before ...
Miles Raymond: Did you read the latest draft, by the way? Jack: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Miles Raymond: And? Jack: It's great. I mean there are so many improvements. It's much tighter, just seems... I don't know, more congealed or something. Miles Raymond: Mm...
John: Hello, Paul. You are a perfectly healthy, sane and middle-class male yet last month you ran a straight razor across your wrist. Did you cut yourself because you truly wanted to die or did you just want some attention? Tonight, you'll show me. T...
Cowardly Lion: [getting a panic attack walking into the Wizard's foyer] Wait a minute, Fellows. I was just thinking. I really don't want to see the Wizard this much. I'd better wait for you outside. Scarecrow: What's the matter? Tin Woodsman: Oh, he'...
