Della Bea Robinson: I'm having second thoughts about this. I don't know nobody in L.A. Ray Charles: Look, Bea, I don't want my kids growing up in the South. Now L.A. is where, you know, a Negro can spread his wings and fly. Della Bea Robinson: Ray, m...
Dr. Alice Howland: I used to be someone who knew a lot. No one asks for my opinion or advice anymore. I miss that. I used to be curious and independent and confident. I miss being sure of things. There's no peace in being unsure of everything all the...
Travers Goff: [the Travers have just arrived at their new home which is a rundown farm and it is obvious the family are in poverty but Goff tries to pretend otherwise] A Palace! Complete with mighty steed! Ginty: And chickens! Margaret Goff: [Shocked...
[the stagecoach occupants are voting whether or not to continue without a cavalry escort] Marshal Curly Wilcox: How 'bout you, Mr. Hancock? Samuel Peacock: Peacock. I'd like to go on, brother. I want to reach the bosom of my dear family in Kansas Cit...
Ness: Come on Capone! You wanna fight? You wanna settle it right now? Right here? Let's go! Capone: Listen to me here! You ain't got nothin' on me, nothin'! You're just a cop! Fuck you and your family! Ness: Fuh... know what? [Ness goes to pull his g...
Bill O'Brien: The Hell with the Union! There's plenty of tramps in town, all volunteers. I'm not worried. To get that bonus, they'll carry the entire charge on their backs. Bradley: You mean you're gonna put those bums to work? Bill O'Brien: Yes, Mr....
Walter Sobchak: Now so far, we have what appears to me to be a series of victimless crimes. The Dude: What about the toe? Walter Sobchak: Forget about the fucking toe! Coffee Shop Waitress: Excuse me, sir. Could you please keep your voices down? This...
Don't put down too many roots in terms of a domicile. I have lived in four countries and I think my life as a writer and our family's life have been enriched by this. I think a writer has to experience new environments. There is that adage: No man ca...
Instinct caused a woman who had once been so attractive to still attempt makeup and hairdos, Marisa guessed, but more often than not, the effort came off with Mama looking like a clown. Seeing it broke Marisa’s heart, but she didn’t interfere. He...
I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness- and that can make me laugh. When I am reading a book like this, I feel rich ...
Never underestimate the power of kindness. It is very contagious. A person whose heart is saddened by the troubles of this world, the loss of a friend or family member, a hard days work, or the struggle of provision can experience joy through a simpl...
I don't want to analyze myself or anything, but I think, in fact I know this to be true, that I enter the world through what I write. I grew up believing, and continue to believe, that I am a screw-up, that growing up with my family and friends, I ha...
I live precariously through my characters - so I want them to be loved passionately, live vibrantly, love unconditionally. Make friends they would die for - Explore unimaginable possibilities from all warps of life. And to never forget those that hel...
I don't know why people do the things they do to each other. We're all here to live out lives, to do our work, to raise our families, to love who we love. We're all here for the same things, but some, they can't let that be. They can't be happy or co...
Smokers always waxed poetic about the ritual of it, how a large part of the satisfaction was packing the box and pulling the foil wrapper and plucking an aromatic stick. They claimed they loved the lighting, the ashing, the feeling of being able to h...
Like so many other things in the previous year, my politics had also been retooled by maternity. I began to suspect that modern feminism had gotten it at least partly wrong. . . . In devaluing the home and the vast range of domestic work--childrearin...
I'm a religious man," he said. "I don't believe in a particular God, but even so one can have a faith, something beyond the limits of rationality. Marxism has a large element of built-in faith, although it claims to be a science and not merely an ide...
That night, Gregory dreamt of his mother. It was a dream that he'd have carried to his therapist like a raw, precious egg if he'd had a therapist, and the dream made him wish he had one. In the dream, he sat in the kitchen of his mother's house at th...
In an essay titled A View From the Front Line, Jencks described her experience with cancer as like being woken up midflight on a jumbo jet and then thrown out with a parachute into a foreign landscape without a map: "There you are, the future patient...
The most striking impression was that of an overwhelming bright light. I had seen under similar conditions the explosion of a large amount—100 tons—of normal explosives in the April test, and I was flabbergasted by the new spectacle. We saw the w...
How about this? Hong Kong had been appropriated by British drug pushers in the 1840s. We wanted Chinese silk, porcelain, and spices. The Chinese didn't want our clothes, tools, or salted herring, and who can blame them? They had no demand. Our soluti...
