Georg Dreyman: The state office for statistics on Hans-Beimler street counts everything; knows everything: how many pairs of shoes I buy a year: 2.3, how many books I read a year: 3.2 and how many students graduate with perfect marks: 6,347. But ther...
Henryk Szpilman: I thought you only recruited boys with rich fathers. Look at my father, look at us. Itzak Heller: Yes, I'm looking at you, and that's why I'm here. Your whole family can have a better life. You want to go on struggling for survival, ...
[frame freezes as Remy bursts through a window carrying a book over his head] Remy: [voiceover] This is me. I think it's apparent that I need to rethink my life a little bit. What's my problem? First of all, I'm a rat. Which means, life is hard. Seco...
President Merkin Muffley: I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler. General "Buck" Turgidson: Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American People than with your image in...
[at the booking office, trying to be hired] Joe: What kind of a band is this, anyway? Sig Poliakoff: You gotta be under twenty-five. Jerry: We could pass for that. Sig Poliakoff: You gotta be blonde. Jerry: We could dye our hair. Sig Poliakoff: And y...
Stephen Hawking: I will write a book. Jane Hawking: About what? Stephen Hawking: Time. Jane Hawking: Time? Stephen Hawking: What is the nature of time? Will it ever come to an end? Can we go back in time? Some day these answers may seem as obvious to...
Young Ellie: [Ellie opens her Adventure Book to reveal to Carl a "Life" magazine with Charles Muntz on the cover] You know him. [Carl gasps] Young Ellie: Charles Muntz, explorer. When I get big, I'm going where he's going, [pulls away the magazine to...
Uncle Monty: Laisse-moi, respirer, longtemps, longtemps, l'odeur de tes cheveux. Oh, Baudelaire. Brings back such memories of Oxford. Oh, Oxford... Marwood: [voiceover] Followed by yet another anecdote about his sensitive crimes in a punt with a chap...
General Käutner: Obersturmführer, open your safe. Günther Franken: Of course. Which files would you like to see? General Käutner: None. You're suspected of killing rich Jews. There's nothing wrong with that. But you've been looting the bodies and...
Vivian: So you're a private detective. I didn't know they existed, except in books, or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors. My, you're a mess, aren't you? Philip Marlowe: I'm not very tall either. Next time I'll come on s...
Doc: You know what they say: People in glass houses sink sh-sh-ships. Rocco: Doc, I gotta buy you, like, a proverb book or something. This mix'n'match shit's gotta go. Doc: What? Connor: A penny saved is worth two in the bush, isn't it? Murphy: And d...
[as the townspeople point guns at Bart, the newly arrived sheriff] Reverend Johnson: Gentlemen, gentlemen, allow not hatred to rule the day. [holds up his Bible] Reverend Johnson: As your spiritual leader, I implore you to pay heed to this good book ...
I did point out that I have no prophetic gifts. I write books because I tried to do something more useful and failed. Since I've been trained to write, I do that as a defense against total despair. And seeing people like you, who are actively engaged...
I was downright obnoxious. In second grade, we had some program where we kept a public list of all the books we read. I think it even included the number of pages. In my nerdy mind, having the longest and most impressive list was somehow going to mak...
Some are born to greatness; some achieve greatness; some have greatness thrust upon them.' It is in this way that the librarian has become a censor of literature... books that distinctly commend what is wrong, that teach how to sin and how pleasant s...
And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were ...
A writer is someone who analyses the society, people and the world around him or her. Simply a writer is someone who pays attention to the utmost simple things happening around him or her. I believe the best things about being a writer is, you are go...
I am such a romantic at heart. I don't think I will ever write a book that doesn't have at lease an underlying love story. There's just something about it that makes me feel alive when I write it. Romance is beautiful. It's sacred. It's messy. It's w...
The scent of hyacinths, like a pale mist, lies between me and my book; And the South Wind, washing through the room, Makes the candles quiver. My nerves sting at a spatter of rain on the shutter, And I am uneasy with the thrusting of green shoots Out...
One of the purest souls ever to live on this fallen planet was Nicholas Herman, known as Brother Lawrence. He wrote very little, but what he wrote has seemed to several generations of Christians to be so rare and so beautiful as to deserve a place ne...
I read Claire Messud's 'The Emperor's Children,' I read Joseph O'Neill's 'Netherland' - but to me, they're not 9/11 novels. In 'The Emperor's Children,' 9/11 felt to me like a piece of the plot; the novel wasn't wrestling with what 9/11 meant. And 'N...
