The moral conscience that so many thoughtless people have offended against and many more have rejected, is something that exists and has always existed. It was not an invention of the philosophers of the Quartenary, when the soul was little more than...
We have a bad habit of seeing books as sort of cheaply made movies where the words do nothing but create visual narratives in our heads. So too often what passes for literary criticism is "I couldn't picture that guy", or "I liked that part", or "thi...
[first lines] Narrator: This is the sad tale of the township of Dogville. Dogville was in the Rocky Mountains in the US of A, up here where the road came to its definitive end, near the entrance to the old abandoned silver mine. The residents of Dogv...
Billy Costigan: Listen, listen. I got like, like thirty thousand bucks, right? Insurance money. You know, after my mother passed and everything? Cousin Sean: Yeah, yeah. Billy Costigan: In your line of work, if I gave you like what, ten thousand, wha...
Edward D. Wood, Jr.: It's a guaranteed blockbuster. Ed Reynolds: Hmm. Ah, I understand this science fiction is popular, but uh, don't the big hits always have big stars? Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Well we have a big star: Bela Lugosi. Ed Reynolds: Bela Lug...
Kazuko Yoshiyama: I first fell in love in high school. We became really close as soon as we met. It was like we'd known each other since childhood. But it was over before we became adults. Makoto Konno: Why? Kazuko Yoshiyama: The timing was probably ...
Professor Lupin: The very first time I saw you Harry, I recognized you immediately. Not by your scar, by your eyes. They're your mother; Lily's. Yes, I knew her. You mother was there for me at a time when no one else was. Not only was she a singularl...
[Harry catches Agent Type feeling up Harmony, who's passed out] Harry: You know what? You'd better be her doctor. [Agent Type looks up, busted] Harry: Walk away, don't think, just do it. Agent Type: What are you, her brother or something? It's none o...
[as Chris, Vin and Chico are about to leave the village] Old Man: You could a-stay, you know. They wouldn't be sorry to have you a-stay. Vin: They won't be sorry to see us go, either. Old Man: Yes. The fighting is over. Your work is done. For them, e...
James Bond: So this is it. We're both played out. M: Well, if you believe that, why did you come back? James Bond: Good question. M: Because we're under attack. And you know we need you. James Bond: Well, I'm here. M: You'll have to be debriefed and ...
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: But it ain't all buttons and charts, little albatross. You know what the first rule of flying is? Well, I suppose you do, since you already know what I'm about to say. River Tam: I do. But I like to hear you say it. Capt. Malc...
The Terminator: In three years, Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they fly with a perfect operational record. The S...
Ford: [Ford is attempting to buy Eliza, who begs to allow her daughter to come too. Her son having just been sold] How much for the little girl? You have no need for her. One so young will bring you no profit. Freeman: I will not sell the girl. There...
There's a psychological mechanism, I've come to believe, that prevents most of us from imagining the moment of our own death. For if it were possible to imagine fully that instant of passing from consciousness to nonexistence, with all the attendant ...
What did you do?” I mumble. He is just a few feet away from me now, but not close enough to hear me. As he passes me he stretches out his hand. He wraps it around my palm and squeezes. Squeezes, then lets go. His eyes are bloodshot; he is pale. “...
I was working with a Crookes tube covered by a shield of black cardboard. A piece of barium platino-cyanide paper lay on the bench there. I had been passing a current through the tube, and I noticed a peculiar black line across the paper. ... The eff...
I looked for that which is not, nor can be, And hope deferred made my heart sick in truth But years must pass before a hope of youth Is resigned utterly. I watched and waited with a steadfast will: And though the object seemed to flee away That I so ...
But you are crazy.” “I know.” She lifted a small box from the basket. “Do you know how I know?” Scarlet didn't answer. “Because the palace walls have been bleeding for years, and no one else sees it.” She shrugged, as if this were a per...
It may take a decade or two before the extent of Shakespeare's collaboration passes from the graduate seminar to the undergraduate lecture, and finally to popular biography, by which time it will be one of those things about Shakespeare that we thoug...
At first, you fall in love. You wake in the morning woozy and your twilight is lit with astral violet light. You spelunk down into each other until you come to possess some inner vision of each other that becomes one thing. Us. Together. And time pas...
I tell you, life is extraordinary. A few years ago I couldn’t write anything or sell anything, I’d passed the age where you know all the returns are in, I’d had my chance and done my best and failed. And how was I to know the miracle waiting to...