I’ve said for years — ever since I figured out how to write Goblin Hero — that it’s important to give yourself permission to write crap. Perfection is the destroyer of art. It’s paralyzing. Art, whether it’s writing or painting or anythin...
I believe you have constructive accidents en route through a novel only because you have mapped a clear way. If you have confidence that you have a clear direction to take, you always have confidence to explore other ways; if they prove to be mere di...
It makes no difference to me what kind of bat I have. For instance, I often grab the first bat I come across when I go up to the plate. Muggsy McGraw uses a light stick and Jake Stenzel uses a heavy one, but I'm liable to take any one of the miscella...
Elton John can be a master of the sleight of hand. The arrangements make it seem like there are substantial melodies underneath the tracks - but almost nothing demands repeated listenings. Similarly, he always sounds like he's singing up a storm, but...
Hannibal Lecter: Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn't born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one through years of systematic abuse. Billy hates his own identity, you see, and he thinks that makes him a tran...
Elin: I use two grams of milk and five thousand kilograms of chocolate and it's always nearly black and then... then I usually pour in more milk but then the glass isn't big enough. Then I have to pour it into a bigger glass, or another glass, if the...
[why he can't tell Lydia his name] Beetlejuice: Because if I tell you, you'll tell your friends, your friends are callin' me on the horn all the time, I gotta show up at shopping centers for openings and sign autographs and shit like that and it make...
Mom: [Mason Jr. and Samantha start fighting in the backseat] Hey! What's going on back there? Stop it! Put a barrier up! Come on, make a barrier with your pillow! Mom: Okay, we're going to play a game: Whoever can stay quiet the longest wins. And, go...
Chuck Noland: [to Wilson] We might just make it. Did that thought ever cross your brain? Well, regardless, I would rather take my chance out there on the ocean than to stay here and die on this shithole island, spending the rest of my life talking......
For a long time, I thought when you do a box set, you're giving up; you're saying, 'OK, I don't have anything left.' But now I've listened to some of the old stuff I haven't heard in 20 to 40 years with fresh ears. It's like, 'Oh yeah, I can see wher...
I look young. I heard this said so often that it became irritating. I once worked as a babysitter for a woman who, the first time we met, said she didn't want somebody in high school. I was 22. Later, I realised that in certain places being female an...
When I first started on television, people, and even my own manager at the time, would tell me I had to make all of these changes. But you have to stand up and say, 'There's nothing wrong with me or my shape or who I am; you're the one with the probl...
One day, the infielders were having a pretty bad time and were making some bad throws to me at first base. After digging a few out of the dirt, Joe Orengo called over to me, 'Atta boy, John, you look like a big cat.' Some of the writers overheard the...
When I heard that there were artists, I wished I could some time be one. If I could only make a rose bloom on paper, I thought I should be happy! Or if I could at last succeed in drawing the outline of winter-stripped boughs as I saw them against the...
If I'm not in the dead heat of working on something, I can end up spending tons and tons of time on the Web, and I hate it. I feel the same shame I did in grad school when I was pretty much addicted to reruns of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. I wi...
[a woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray is hiring Gittes] Jake Gittes: What makes you certain that your husband is, um, involved with someone? Mrs. Mulwray: A wife can tell. Jake Gittes: Mrs. Mulwray, do you love your husband? Mrs. Mulwray: Ye...
Randal Graves: Why because I enjoyed what I did? I got to watch movies fuck with assholes and hang out with my best friend all day, can you think of a better way to make a living? Yeah maybe it wasn't what everyone does but it was pretty fucking good...
Charles Foster Kane: Mr. Carter, here's a three-column headline in the Chronicle. Why hasn't the Inquirer a three-column headline? Herbert Carter: The news wasn't big enough. Charles Foster Kane: Mr. Carter, if the headline is big enough, it makes th...
[Rick and Renault discussing Victor Laszlo's chances of escaping Casablanca] Captain Renault: This is the end of the chase. Rick: Twenty thousand francs says it isn't. Captain Renault: Is that a serious offer? Rick: I just paid out twenty. I'd like t...
Senor Ferrari: What do you want for Sam? Rick: I don't buy or sell human beings. Senor Ferrari: Too bad. That's Casablanca's leading commodity. With refugees alone we can make a fortune if you work with me through the black market. Rick: Suppose you ...
Nicky Santoro: [voice-over] Me? Thats why The Bosses sent me out here - they wanted me to make sure none of the other crews robbed the joint. Like these two fuckin' ballonheads over here. They were gonna try to bang us outta two hundred fuckin' grand...
