While writing 'Half of a Yellow Sun,' I enjoyed playing with minor things: inventing a train station in a town that has none, placing towns closer to each other than they are, changing the chronology of conquered cities. Yet I did not play with the c...
By the time I started high school, I knew I wanted to be a writer. After graduating from Smith College in Massachusetts, I moved to New York City and worked for the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.
I don't know how anyone gets anything done in cities. How can you live somewhere like London or New York, when there are 81 things to do every night? Awful. Give me solitude and space any time.
Every time you think of a city, you have to think green, green, green. Every time you see concrete jungle, you must find open spaces. And when you find open spaces, make it so people can get to them.
One of the characteristics of North American culture is that you can always start again. You can always move forward, cross a border of a state or a city or a county, and move West, most of the time West. You leave behind guilt, past traditions, memo...
Sometimes you want to go for a walk and you don't want to be watched. You just want to be anonymous and blend in. Especially when I travel, I feel that way, because I can't really go out and see a city the way other people can and I miss out on a lot...
Sandro Cenoura: Have you lost your mind? You are just a kid! Filé-com-Fritas - Steak and Fries: A kid? I smoke, I snort. I've killed and robbed. I'm a man.
Clark: Hey, Kids, I heard on the news that an airline pilot spotted Santa's sleigh on its way in from New York City. Eddie: [after a pause] You serious, Clark?
Mr. Hand: [stomps on a newspaper clipping] So it seems you discovered your unpleasant nature. John Murdoch: Who are you? Mr. Hand: We might ask the same question, yes? Sleep... now.
[at the murder scene] Inspector Frank Bumstead: What's that make so far, Husselbeck? Six hookers in all? Husselbeck: I believe so, sir. Inspector Frank Bumstead: Give the man an "A" for effort.
[Lewis and Ed take a wrong turn looking for the river] First Griner: Where you goin' city boy? Lewis: We'll find it. We'll find it. Second Griner: It ain't nothin' but the biggest fuckin' river in the state.
John Blake: I just can't take it. I mean, nobody will ever know who it was who saved an entire city. Jim Gordon: They know who it was; it was the Batman.
Old man: [about Lee's sister] Now you know the truth. When you get to the city, pay your respects to your sister and your mother. Lee: I will old man.
[first lines] William Orser: So we keep headin' east? Leland Jones: Yeah, that's the idea. William Orser: Stay out of the big cities? Leland Jones: Uh-huh.
Chief Inspector Uhl: In the name of his Imperial Majesty in the city of Vienna, I hereby arrest Edward Abramovich, also known as Eisenheim The Illusionist, on charges of disturbing public order, charlatanism and threats against the empire.
Quint: You have city hands, Mr. Hooper. You been countin' money all your life. Hooper: All right, all right. Hey, I don't need this... I don't need this working-class-hero crap.
Larry Lipton: I think it's a reasonable assumption that if you're dead you don't suddenly turn up in the New York City Transit System.
Larry Lipton: New York is the city that never sleeps! That's why we don't live in Duluth. That, plus I don't even know where Duluth is. Lucky me.
Priest: ...ask yourself if that corpse of a slut is worth dying for. Marv: Worth dying for. [shoots priest] Marv: Worth killing for. [shoots him again] Marv: Worth going to hell for. [shoots him again] Marv: Amen.
[first lines] The Salesman: [voiceover] She shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree. I let her hear my footsteps. She only goes stiff for a moment.
[Marv's last line, blood pouring from his mouth, after the first shock from the electric chair] Marv: Is that the best you can do, you pansies? [They shock him again]
