Then Leo realized something was blocking the middle of his view. Something large and fuzzy, and so close, Leo had to cross his eyes to see it properly. It was a large, ugly face. "Holy mother!" he yelped. The face backed away and came into focus. Sta...
I love our summer game and its letters as much as the next man, and surely no less than my colleagues. I do not, however, repose much faith in its fiction. The short stories are fair to middling, and Conan Doyle, Wodehouse and Ian Peebles have contri...
In ancient times, people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really g...
In ancient times people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, or female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really...
In the Ottoman times, there were itinerant storytellers called "meddah. " They would go to coffee houses, where they would tell a story in front of an audience, often improvising. With each new person in the story, the meddah would change his voice, ...
Too many poets act like a middle-aged mother trying to get her kids to eat too much cooked meat, and potatoes with drippings (tears). I don't give a damn whether they eat or not. Forced feeding leads to excessive thinness (effete). Nobody should expe...
I read and write for character. If I like and can relate to the characters in a story I can enjoy any kind of story. I also want something with a definitive plot—you know, beginning, middle and end--that has forward motion. I don’t like series bo...
Gintoki: Listen up! Let’s say you drink too much strawberry milk, and have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, but it’s cold outside your bed. You don’t want to get up, but the urge to urinate is just too strong! You make up your mi...
The Greeks made Space the subject-matter of a science of supreme simplicity and certainty. Out of it grew, in the mind of classical antiquity, the idea of pure science. Geometry became one of the most powerful expressions of that sovereignty of the i...
I was curious as to how my words started circulating at such an alarming rate. After all, every author waits to be discovered by someone. Anyone. And so I found myself smack bang in the middle of the mad hatters head, and as someone put it, Tumblr mi...
I will say that my philosophy as a writer, since the very start of my career, has been one of “show, don’t tell.” Whatever might be happening in my books, I try to put the reader into the middle of it, rather than summarizing the action. That r...
Irene Walsh: [to Rosalita] This is my supply closet. You'll find everything you need - brooms, dust pans, insect spray... I would really like the house clean when they tear it down. Clark, can you translate? Mouth: ["translating" to Rosalita] If you ...
Max: What the hell do you think about when you're playing? Where does your mind go when you hit the keys? 1900: Last night I was in a beautiful country. Women had perfume in their hair, everything glowed. It was full of tides. Max: He traveled. And e...
Bilbo: Tell me again, lad... where are we going? Frodo: To the harbor, Bilbo. The elves have accorded you a special honor; a place on the last ship to leave Middle Earth. Bilbo: Frodo... Any chance of seeing that old ring again? Hmm? The one I gave y...
Roger Murtaugh: [discussing a theory] That's pretty fucking thin. Martin Riggs: That's very thin. Roger Murtaugh: What the hell, thin's my middle name. Martin Riggs: Your wife's cooking, I'm not surprised. [fires his gun several more times] Roger Mur...
Mayor: Drebin, I don't want anymore trouble like you had last year on the South Side. Understand? That's my policy. Frank: Yes. Well, when I see 5 weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of 100 people, I shoot t...
Charley: I'm not goin' to my maker without knowin' your given name. Mine ain't Waite; it's Postelwaite. Charles Travis Postelwaite. What's yours? Sure ain't Boss. [Boss hesitates] Charley: I mean it, Boss. I'm asking you straight up. Boss Spearman: I...
Chris Taylor: It's the way the whole thing works. People like Elias get wasted. People like Barnes just go on making up the rules any way they want. So what do we do? Sit in the middle and suck on it. We just don't add up to dry shit, King. King: Who...
Mitzi: [as Felicia starts painting over the graffiti on their bus, which is stranded in the middle of nowhere] Purple? Felicia: It's not *purple*, it's *lavender*. Whaddaya think? Mitzi: It's nice... in a hideous sort of a way. Mitzi: [to Bernadette,...
If you read history you will find that the Christians begin the most for the present world are just the ones that thought the most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot. in the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built u...
The men were smashing windows and aiming their weapons through them. The driver had opened the door and was shouting for the women and children to get out and run and hide. But Ilina realized in some vague way that he never managed to actually say th...
