When you're and only child in a family with an only parent, you look at other, bigger families with envy. Mary Alice had a family with a station wagon, a split-level house, and a pool. But then I looked up and saw Mary Alice's toes, as she stood at t...
J. R. R. Tolkien, the near-universally-hailed father of modern epic fantasy, crafted his magnum opus The Lord of the Rings to explore the forces of creation as he saw them: God and country, race and class, journeying to war and returning home. I’ve...
I know you told me you'd wait for me, but I don't want either of us to wait anymore. Especially when I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were special. I feel like I've been running my whole life, speeding from small town into a big city, ...
Norman picked up a sketch, glanced at it, then put it back down on the table. "I saw Bea Williamson this morning," he said in a low voice. "Lurking about looking for cut glass." "Oh, of course," Mira said with a sigh. "Did she have it with her?" Norm...
Rules or no rules, it was certainly better to see these things than not to see them. Marya felt that she had a secret, a very good secret, and that if she took care of it, the secret would take care of her. She had seen the world naked, caught out. H...
It was late morning when he woke and found the telephone beside his bed in the hotel tolling frantically, and remembered that he had left word to be called at eleven. Sloane was snoring heavily, his clothes in a pile by his bed. They dressed and ate ...
It’s strange how what drives us may abandon us midstream, how what tickles our ears with lies one moment may tell us truths that knock us on our emotional ass the next. After all, it is an unbelievably real world, with Darwin scribbling his thought...
She was suddenly roused by the sound of the door-bell, and her spirits were a little fluttered by the idea of its being Colonel Fitzwilliam himself, who had once before called late in the evening, and might now come to inquire particularly after her....
If I could just have him until the day was over. Just a few more hours. But he was gone. I clasped my hand tightly over my mouth and felt a trembling that started deep inside move out to make all of me shake. I had a mighty impulse, it truly was migh...
Where my soul went during that swoon I cannot tell. Whatever she saw, or wherever she travelled in her trance on that strange night she kept her own secret; never whispering a word to Memory, and baffling imagination by an indissoluble silence. She m...
Hello," Life says, "Remember me? We started out together here When you were just a bundle Of innocent amazement. Remember how you saw the world With nothing but wonder? We were such rowdy playmates then. We painted on the sky with clouds And made mag...
As Molly wrapped one of the freshly made flour tortillas around several slices of perfectly cooked steak and piled on guacamole, she began talking. The more she talked, the faster her words came. It was as if she were afraid that someone else would s...
[Murdoch opens the door to what should be Shell Beach and instead sees the same sign he saw earlier advertising it. Murdoch walks up to the sign, confused] Dr. Schreber: There is no ocean, John. There is nothing beyond the city. The only place home e...
John Anglin: Hey, how's it going, Frank? Frank Morris: Well, the Anglins. What are you guys doing, just dropping by? Clarence Anglin: Yeah, thought we'd pay you a visit. Frank Morris: Gonna stay long? John Anglin: Nah, not long. Only about fifteen or...
Mothershead: Sir! I don't quite... I don't quite understand why it is you allow that sort of people in there. Dr. Frederick Treves: Why? Because he enjoys it, and I think it's very good for him. Mothershead: Yes, but, sir, you saw the expression on t...
School of Fish: Hey, hey! You like impressions? Dory: Mmm-hmm. School of Fish: Okay, just like in rehearsal, gentlemen. [School takes form of swordfish] School of Fish: So, what are we? Take a guess. Dory: Oh, oh, I've seen one of those. School of Fi...
Ron Weasley: You don't know why I listen to the radio, do you? To make sure I don't hear Ginny's name. Or Fred, or George, or Mum. Harry Potter: You think I'm not listening too? You think I don't know how this feels? Ron Weasley: No, you *don't* know...
[Pauline is spending the Easter holiday with the Hulmes. Hilda Hulme, brushing Pauline's hair into an attractive shag, listens while Juliet describes more of the story that they've been devising] Juliet Hulme: Mummy, Paul and I have decided that Char...
Gobber: And with one twist, he took my hand and swallowed it whole. And I saw the look on his face. I was delicious! He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg! [gestures to his fake leg] Fishlegs: ...
[Slughorn is snipping tentacular leaves through a window in the greenhouse; Harry, who is walking by, notices Slughorn and walks up behind him. Slughorn is startled] Horace Slughorn: Aaauughh!... Merlin's beard, Harry! Harry Potter: Oh, sorry, sir, I...
Bert Gordon: Eddie, is it alright if I get personal? Fast Eddie: Whaddaya been so far? Bert Gordon: Eddie, you're a born loser. Fast Eddie: What's that supposed to mean? Bert Gordon: First time in ten years I ever saw Minnesota Fats hooked... really ...
