We need an enemy to give people hope. Someone said that patriotism is the last refuge of cowards: those without moral principles usually wrap a flag around themselves, and the bastards always talk about the purity of the race. National identity is th...
He was a thundering paradox of a man, noble and ignoble, inspiring and outrageous, arrogant and shy, the best of me and the worst of men, the most protean, most ridiculous, and most sublime. No more baffling, exasperating soldier ever wore a uniform....
When I write I am trying to express my way of being in the world. This is primarily a process of elimination: once you have removed all the dead language, the second-hand dogma, the truths that are not your own but other people's, the mottos, the slo...
For once I didn't look away immediately. I forced myself to meet her contemptuous gaze. I allowed myself be swept away by it, to drown in it - the way I'd done so many times before. The way I would willingly do again. Because at least she was here to...
There’s something different about her. I realize it’s her breasts—they’re huge. I see that she’s stuffed her bikini top with wet balls of sand. “What is that?” I say. “Scottie. Your suit.” She shields her eyes with her hand and look...
Right now, I am in Fallujah. I am in Darfur. I am on Sixty-third and Park having dinner with Ellen Barkin and Ron Perelman... Right now, I'm on Lafayette and Astor waiting to hit you up for change so I can get high. I'm taking a walk through the Rose...
She’s contemplative; I can feel the air around her thick with her thoughts. “No,” she says at last, “I want to believe you’re being sincere but I know you’re not. So I say no, because even if I allow myself to fantasize a little about our...
Middle children weep longer than their brothers and sisters. Over her mother’s shoulder, stilling her pains and her injured pride, Jackie Lacon watched the party leave. First, two men she had not seen before: one tall, one short and dark. They drov...
VISIONS OF GRANDEUR I'm walking through a sheet of glass instead of the door, Flying over a giant candlestick lighting up Central Park, Repeating two courses at Hard Knock's College, And swimming through the Red Sea with silky jelly fish. I'm hopping...
At the high school a pretty girl strolled across the parking lot to her black stallion, let her cigarette dangle from her lips while she put on her helmet, adjusted her goggles. Throwing a slender white leg over the side she jacked her little backsid...
Janna knew - Rikki knew — and I knew, too — that becoming Dr Cameron West wouldn't make me feel a damn bit better about myself than I did about being Citizen West. Citizen West, Citizen Kane, Sugar Ray Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, Robinson miso, mi...
Mr. Jaffe: The usual lunch or the usual dinner? Harry Callahan: Well, what difference does that make? Mr. Jaffe: None. Harry Callahan: Say Jaffe, is that Tan Ford still parked in front of the bank? Mr. Jaffe: Tan ford... [checks] Mr. Jaffe: Yep. Tan ...
Igor Karkaroff: [a highly agitated Karkaroff is following Snape around outside the Yule Ball as Snape patrols through the carriages parked on the grounds] It's happening again, like before, and soon neither you nor anyone else will be able to deny it...
Eddie: The Traffic Warden identified the neighbours' bodies. Which sort of puts us in the clear. The only thing connecting us with the case is those shotguns. Bacon: And Tom took care of them. Soap: You did take care of the shotguns? Tom: I wanted to...
Captain Dudley Smith: [Captain Smith briefs the squad room on Jack Vincennes' death; Exley is standing beside him] Sergeant Vincennes was killed by a .32 slug to the heart. Time of death, approximately 1 a.m. Although he was found in Echo Park, preli...
Hikaru Sulu: The fleet has cleared spacedock, Captain. All ships ready for warp. Christopher Pike: Set a course for Vulcan. Hikaru Sulu: Aye-Aye, Captain. Course laid in. Christopher Pike: Maximum warp. Punch it. [One by one, the rest of the star fle...
[Ryan meets Alex Goran for the first time at a bar] Ryan Bingham: Are you satisfied with Maestro? Alex Goran: Yeah, I am. Ryan Bingham: A little stingy with their miles. I like Hertz. Alex Goran: No, Hertz keeps its vehicles too long. If a car has ov...
D-Day: Hey, quit your blubberin'. When I get through with this baby you won't even recognize it. Otter: Flounder, you can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You fucked up... you trusted us! Hey, make the best of it! Maybe we can he...
Marty McFly: Let's go over the plan again, so eight-thirty where are you going to be? George McFly: I'm gonna be at the dance. Marty McFly: And where am I gonna be? George McFly: You're going to be in the car with her... Marty McFly: Right, so right ...
In contrast to what many people in Britain and the United States believe, the true figures on growth (as best one can judge from official national accounts data) show that Britain and the United States have not grown any more rapidly since 1980 than ...
There is one element in Christianity which was not borrowed from Paganism -- religious intolerance. Referring to Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, a writer on China says: 'Between the followers of the three national religions there is not only a to...
