Left alone, I am overtaken by the northern void-no wind, no cloud, no track, no bird, only the crystal crescents between peaks, the ringing monuments of rock that, freed from the talons of ice and snow, thrust an implacable being into the blue. In th...
A loud boom exploded the air, making Thomas jump. It was followed by a horrible crunching, grinding sound. He stumbled backward, fell to the ground. He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it for himself. The enormous stone wall to the right o...
Mom: [Driving Mason Jr. home from school] Your teacher said you're behind on your homework assignments. Mason: No, I did them, they were just sitting in my backpack. Mom: So, why didn't you turn them in? Mason: She never asked for them. Mom: Well, ho...
Try to roll with the punches. Keep your chin up. Don’t take any wooden nickels. Vote Democrat in every election. Ride your bike in the park. Dream about my perfect, golden body. Take your vitamins. Drink eight glasses of water a day. Pull for the M...
But how?" my students ask. "How do you actually do it?" You sit down, I say. You try to sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively. So you sit down at, say, nine every morni...
I'm not your blue-eyed Czech, I'm just a brown-eyed girl, A little mix of rock your world, And now you'll never be the same. You grabbed me by the hand, I grabbed you by the neck. I changed the game, and your convictions. So is it criminal to steal a...
For while they'd stayed close during the absurd years of his sharp rise, having children had knocked it all into a different arrangement. The minute you had children you closed ranks. You didn't plan this in advance, but it happened. Families were li...
A long time ago, there was a little girl called Mary. Now Mary, she was warned several times not to go to her neighbor’s house. Her neighbor was a grandmother. But Mary hardly listened, so she snuck off one night to spy on her. She tried the front ...
I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's m...
I can understand that people want to feel special and important and so on, but that self-obsession seems a bit pathetic somehow. Not being able to accept that you're just this collection of cells, intelligent to whatever degree, capable of feeling em...
[Simon is in one of the dumptrucks driving gold through the unfinished aqueduct] Simon: [on a phone] Rear guard, you can close up now. [pauses, not getting an answer] Simon: We've reached the dam, you can come up now. [pauses again] Simon: Nils? You ...
Roger: Here's a joke, boy. One day this man walks out of his house to go to work. He sees this snail on his porch. So he picks it up and chucks it over his roof, into the back yard. Snail bounces off a rock, cracks its shell all to shit, and lands in...
GOOD MORNING," said the little prince. "Good Morning," said the salesclerk. This was a salesclerk who sold pills invented to quench thirst. Swallow one a week and you no longer feel any need to drink. "Why do you sell these pills?" "They save so much...
Scuttle: [Flying blissfully close to the wedding barge, as he hums the Wedding March] Vanessa: [singing in Ariel's Voice, to the tune of "Poor Unfortunate Souls"] What a lovely little bride I'll make/ My dear I'll look divine. Vanessa: [Chuckles, the...
Be always a little afraid so that you never will be much afraid.
Who begins too much accomplishes little.
Do not speak of secret matters in a field that is full of little hills.
Come a little closer when your sword is too short.
A little rain each day will fill the rivers to overflowing.
What little Johnny has not learned, big John will not know.
Don't call me a little olive until you've picked me.
