At dusk, Wakefield “had my most important thought that day.” Wading into chest-deep water at first light that morning, “I found that my legs would hardly hold me up. I thought I was a coward.” Then he had discovered that his sea bags with the...
As long as reading is for us the instigator whose magic keys have opened the door to those dwelling-places deep within us that we would not have known how to enter, its role in our lives is salutary. It becomes dangerous, on the other hand, when, ins...
It's all a matter of perception. What one person deems to be important may be just as equally unimportant to another. What one deems to be right may seem very wrong to someone else. Your moral compass and values may not always be totally in sync with...
I’m not your boyfriend!” I snapped, trying to gently move her hands away from my body. “How can you say that?” Sara asked in horror. “It’s shockingly effortless,” I replied. “My vocal chords vibrate, and my mouth and tongue articulate...
Writing, music, sculpting, painting, and prayer! These are the three things that are most closely related! Writers, musicians, sculptors, painters, and the faithful are the ones who make things out of nothing. Everybody else, they make things out of ...
It always pisses me off when I’m calling in to some Morning Zoo radio show to promote God-only-knows what—probably this book, so get ready, I’m comin’—when the DJ actually tries to convince me that there are as many female comics as male on...
Words are words. People add meaning to words. Information is information. With words people add value to information. Words breathe life into information. Words move mountains of information. Words are action. Momentum for living evolves from pursuit...
Wise Blood was written by an author congenitally innocent of theory, but one with certain preoccupations. That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no g...
A story is alive, as you and I are. It is rounded by muscle and sinew. Rushed with blood. Layered with skin, both rough and smooth. At its core lies soft marrow of hard, white bone. A story beats with the heart of every person who has ever strained e...
Men will allow God to be everywhere but on his throne. They will allow him to be in his workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow his bounties. they will allow Him to sustain t...
The summer ended. Day by day, and taking its time, the summer ended. The noises in the street began to change, diminish, voices became fewer, the music sparse. Daily, blocks and blocks of children were spirited away. Grownups retreated from the stree...
The human soul is complex. So is Nature (or life, if you prefer). Creating a perfect interface between the two results in a balance that one can recognize in an individual as a state of grace. This kind of resulting harmony is just like the dynamic i...
For his lunch break, Alex decided to sit outside for a smoke. There was no break room to speak of, just a backdoor that led to a neglected parking lot and an old payphone. There was an upturned crate by the door used to hold the door open or to sit o...
Alfred: [about Selina Kyle] You two should exchange notes over coffee. Bruce Wayne: So now you're trying to set me up with a jewel thief? Alfred: At this point, I'd set you up with a chimpanzee if it'd brought you back to the world! Bruce Wayne: Ther...
Father Damien Karras: [sees Father Merrin dead on Regan's bed and gently moves him on the floor] Regan MacNeil: [looks at Karras and Merrrin] Father Damien Karras: [beats with great force on Merrin's breast, checks whether he can hear Merrin's heartb...
[Pvt. Joker is doing pull-ups. Hartman counts them off] Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: One for the Commandant! One for the Corps! Come on Joker, pull! Pull! [Pvt. Joker can't complete another pull-up] Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: I guess the Corps don't get ...
James Reston, Jr.: You know the first and greatest sin of the deception of television is that it simplifies; it diminishes great, complex ideas, stretches of time; whole careers become reduced to a single snapshot. At first I couldn't understand why ...
Inspector Frank Butterman: I used to believe in the immutable word of the Law. That is until the night Mrs. Butterman was taken from me. You see no-one loved Sandford more than her - she was head of the Women's Institute, chair of the floral committe...
Elvis: [Sloe grabs Slevin by the throat and moves him into the living room] The Boss wants to see you. Slevin: Who? Sloe: The Boss. Slevin: Who's the Boss? Sloe: The guy we work for. Slevin: [Sloe let's go of Slevin's throat] Jesus! Elvis: Come here ...
Herb Brooks: Come on in boys. John 'Bah' Harrington: You wanted to see us, Coach. Herb Brooks: I'm thinking about keeping the three of you together on the same line. Everyone ok with that? Buzz Schneider: Yeah. John 'Bah' Harrington: Sure. Mark Pavel...
King: [while cleaning the latrines] I'm too short for this shit, man. 39 and a wake-up, a pause for the cause and I'm a gone motherfucker. Back to the world! Crawford: Hey, I broke a hundred the other day, 92 left to go. April 17th, home to Californi...
