Some poets travel to distant lands and bring back exotic sights and smells. But others go to witness turmoil or violence, to be at the center of political or social change and to bring back the news — not as journalists do, but shaped through langu...
You know what’s really, powerfully sexy? A sense of humor. A taste for adventure. A healthy glow. Hips to grab on to. Openness. Confidence. Humility. Appetite. Intuition. … Smart-ass comebacks. Presence. A quick wit. Dirty jokes told by an innoce...
People of religious distinction maintain that human beings exclusively possess souls, on the strength of which they may gain admittance to heaven. Only human beings lie, devise pogroms, murder for recreation, steal, libel, slander and perform crosswo...
Well, then why should we do anything more than once? Should I just smoke this one cigarette? Maybe we should only have sex once, if it's the same thing. Should we just watch one sunset? Or live just one day? Because it's new every time. Each time is ...
In the attempt to find the just measure of horror and terror, I came upon the writing of Carole Gill whose work revealed a whole new dimension to me. The figure of the gothic child was there. Stoker's horror was there. Along with the romance! At the ...
As immigrants fly across oceans they shed their old clothing because clothes maketh the man and new ones help ease the transition. Men's clothing has less international variations; the change is not so drastic. But those women who are not used to wea...
You go to a great school not so much for knowledge as for arts and habits; for the habit of attention, for the art of expression, for the art of assuming, at a moment’s notice, a new intellectual position, for the art of entering quickly into anoth...
Yo, cop. We're heading for Screamer's. You wanna come?" Butch looked up at the doorway. Vishous was in the hall with Rhage and Phury behind him. The vampires had expectant looks on their faces, like they honestly wanted to hang with him. Butch found ...
Necessity is not the mother of invention. Knowledge and experiment are its parents. It sometimes happens that successful search is made for unknown materials to fill well-recognized and predetermined requirements. It more often happens that the acqui...
Maybe your college professor taught that the legacy of colonialism explains Third World poverty. That’s nonsense as well. Canada was a colony. So were Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. In fact, the richest country in the world, the United State...
Songs of myself I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul, The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me, The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into new tongue. I am the poet of the w...
Look for the clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly. Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Is every word doing new work? Can any thought be expressed with more economy? Is anything pompous o...
I wake up at 4:15 A.M., get some coffee, turn on the news, see what's happening, go clickety-clack on the web to see what I missed overnight. Then I go to the gym, around 5:15, and I do what appears to be a very light workout, but who cares. I'm soci...
Love was the greatest thing, wasn't it? Love was what we had that no one else had or could ever have? And you were a genius and I was your whole life. I was your partner and your little black flower. Slop. Love is just another dirty lie. Love is ergo...
Pernell: [during a visit to the penitentiary] It's been a long time, Caine. How you doin', man? How come you never come see me? Caine: [looking down] Man, I don't want to see you all caged up like some animal. Pernell: Is that what you think? I'm a a...
Truman: I figure we can scrape together $8,000... Meryl: Every time you and Marlon get together... Truman: We can bum around the world for a year on that! Meryl: And then what, Truman? We'd be where we were five years ago. You're talking like a teena...
Ensign Monk: Bud, give me a reading from your liquid oxygen gauge. Virgil: [typing] 5 minuts worth Lindsey Brigman: [whispers, shocked] What? Alan "Hippy" Carnes: [panicked] It took him *thirty* minutes just to get down there! Lindsey Brigman: Bud! D...
Ensign Monk: Bud, give me a reading from your liquid oxygen gauge. Virgil: [typing] 5 minuts worth Lindsey Brigman: [shocked] What? Alan "Hippy" Carnes: It took him *thirty* minutes just to get down there! Lindsey Brigman: Bud! Do you hear me? You dr...
[Homer has asked Wilma into his bedroom to see what happens as he prepares for bed. After removing his hooks and harness, he 'wiggles' into his pajama top] Homer Parrish: I'm lucky. I have my elbows. Some of the boys don't. But I can't button them up...
Ray: Harry, I've got an idea. Harry: What? Ray: My room faces out the canal, right? I'm going to go back to me room, jump into the canal, see if I can swim to the other side and escape. Harry: All right. Ray: If you go outside around the corner, you ...
Revolutionary art need not be overtly political in content; what is more important is that it demand a new means of perception on the part of its spectators. The subject in process/on trial can thus be fundamentally transformed. Change here, at the l...
