Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see...
I think the measure of advancement depends on where you are stood and from what distance you look. A thousand years ago, we farmed the fields, built towns and defended our land with swords and spears. It is little different now, save for the number o...
Just when it seemed my mother couldn’t bear one more needle, one more insane orange pill, my sister, in silence, stood at the end of the bed and slowly rubbed her feet, which were scratchy with hard, yellow skin, and dirt cramped beneath the broken...
I don't really enjoy experiencing pain. No one does. But we will become less human if we learn to detach ourselves from one another to the point that when we experience death of a beautiful being (our mothers, our fathers, our sisters, our brothers, ...
I don't accept the currently fashionable assertion that any view is automatically as worthy of respect as any equal and opposite view. My view is that the moon is made of rock. If someone says to me 'Well, you haven't been there, have you? You haven'...
I say this because as an older man I am prone to ponder matters in the light of death in a way that you are not. I am like a traveler from Mars who looks down in astonishment at what passes here. And what I see is the same human frailty passed from g...
I’ve had librarians say to me, “People in my school don’t agree with homosexuality, so it’s difficult to have your book on the shelves.” Here’s the thing: Being gay is not an issue, it is an identity. It is not something that you can agre...
Going through the customs dampened them further. Customs inspectors must have a mental twist that makes them suspicious of innocence. Dewy-eyed honeymooners, red-cheeked provincials, and helpless little old ladies lash them into frenzied investigatio...
[first lines] Narrator: With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point. But, not everybody could get to Lisbon di...
Gang Member #1: Whatcha doin' Mister? Bill Foster: Nothing. Gang Member #1: Yes you are man, you're trespassing on private property. Bill Foster: Trespassing? Gang Member #2: You're loitering too, man. Gang Member #1: That's right, you're loitering t...
Terence Mann: Ray, there was a reason they chose me, just as there was a reason they chose you and this field. Ray Kinsella: Why? Terence Mann: I gave an interview. Ray Kinsella: What interview? What are you talking about? Terence Mann: The one about...
[first lines] Raoul Duke: [narrating] We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like: Raoul Duke: I feel a bit lightheaded. Maybe you should drive. Raoul Duke: [narrati...
[first lines] Author: It is an extremely common mistake. People think the writer's imagination is always at work, that he's constantly inventing an endless supply of incidents and episodes; that he simply dreams up his stories out of thin air. In poi...
Boss Tweed: You killed an elected official? Bill: Who elected him? Boss Tweed: You don't know what you've done to yourself. Bill: [taps his glass eye with a knife] I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. So because you are lukewarm, I will s...
Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody: Potter, you're underage. Which means you still have the trace on you. Harry Potter: What's the trace? Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody: If you sneeze, the Ministry will know who wipes your nose. Point is we'll have to use those means ...
Max: [on deck of ship] It happened every time. Someone would look up, and see her. It's difficult to understand. There'd be more than a thousand of us on that ship, traveling rich folks, immigrants, and strange people, and us; yet there was always *o...
Mrs. Iselin: I know you will never entirely comprehend this, Raymond, but you must believe I did not know it would be you. I served them. I fought for them. I'm on the point of winning for them the greatest foothold they would ever have in this count...
[last lines] King Arthur: [Arthur and Bedevere have found out that the Holy Grail is in Castle Augh, which is guarded by the frenchmen] We shall attack at once. Sir Bedevere: Yes, my liege. [an army of hundreds of soldiers appears] King Arthur: [to C...
Ed Tom Bell: You know Charlie Walser? Has the place east of Sanderson? Well you know how they used to slaughter beeves, hit 'em with a maul right here to stun 'em... and then up and slit their throats? Well here Charlie has one trussed up and all set...
Steven Connolly: [after he and Sheba have made love for the first time] Can I smoke, Miss? Sheba Hart: You can do what you want, but enough of this 'Miss'. Steven Connolly: [laughs] Were you a model once? [shakes her head] Steven Connolly: Well you s...
George Nelson: [after Nelson has robbed the bank] Thank you folks! And remember, Jesus saves, but George Nelson withdraws! [laughs] George Nelson: Go fetch the auto voiture, Pete. Woman In Bank: [whispering] Is that "Babyface" Nelson? George Nelson: ...
