Payne sought clarification. “Vertical or horizontal?” “Horizontal, of course.” “Sorry but I can’t help you.” “Will you pipe down for a minute? Naturally she was dead since I work at a cemetery. Her face struck a chord though. So, I ru...
Once again, I was conscious of the paradox of the compound: that here, at the heart of the unfolding events, we could catch no more than a glimpse of them. Fires were burning all over Dili; the smell was in our nostrils from the moment we wok up, and...
..if you put people on a diet, they start thinking about food. Or if you make someone stop smoking, all they think about is cigarettes. It seems logical enough to me that if you tell a person he can't have sex, he's going to be obsessive about the su...
There is a muse, but he’s not going to come fluttering down into your writing room and scatter creative fairy-dust all over your typewriter or computer station. He lives in the ground. He’s a basement guy. You have to descend to his level, and on...
One may picture, too, the sudden shifting of the attention, the swiftly spreading coils and bellyings of that blackness advancing headlong, towering heavenward, turning the twilight to a palpable darkness, a strange and horrible antagonist of vapour ...
He has spent weeks on the pristine, frosty shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia. He has drunk himself stupid in the fairy-tale blood brothels of old Dubrovnik, lounged in red-smoke dens in Laos, enjoyed the New York blackout of 1977, and more recently, fe...
Now the screams were awful to hear as men burned like candles all along the deck. Black smoke billowed over the sea. Argurios could not believe what he was watching. At least fifty helpless men were dying in agony. One man managed to free himself and...
She has her helmet, shield and sword. Does she finish him or take pity on the gutless thing before her? Does she set fire and smoke him out, forcing him to fight, or does she let him live with himself and take satisfaction from knowing that he has ne...
Ordell Robbie: Goddamn girl, you gettin' high already? It's just 2 o'clock! Melanie: [chuckling] It's that late? Ordell Robbie: You know you smoke too much of that shit, that shit gonna rob you of your own ambition. Melanie: Not if your ambition is t...
[in the waiting room of the afterlife] Barbara: Adam, is this what happens when you die? Receptionist: This is what happens when *you* die. [points at a gaunt man smoking] Receptionist: That is what happens when *he* dies. [points at a woman cut in h...
1900: Hey, Max, gimme a cigarette, will you? Max: [bitterly] You're not handling this well. 1900: [calmly] Just gimme a cigarette. Max: [matter of factly] You don't smoke. What is the matter with you? You could lick this guy with one hand, come on! 1...
Michael Murphy: *Fuck.* Worst fucking comms. Marcus Luttrell: Well, we could light these goats on fire, smoke signal our way outta here. Danny Dietz: Yeah, I could walk down to the village, ask 'em to borrow a phone. Marcus Luttrell: You could get so...
[the inmates are playing cards and betting with cigarettes] Martini: [rips a cigarette in half] I bet a nickel. McMurphy: Dime's the limit, Martini. Martini: I bet a dime. [Puts the two halves onto the table] McMurphy: This is not a dime, Martini. Th...
Marion: What do you want? Toht: Ah, the same thing your friend Dr. Jones wanted. Surely he mentioned there would be other interested parties? Marion: Must have slipped his mind. Toht: The man is nefarious. I hope for your sake that he has not yet acq...
Senator Lothridge: Now as we discussed earlier, these warning labels are not for those who know, but rather for those who don't know. What about the children? Nick Naylor: Gentleman. It's called education. It doesn't come off the side of a cigarette ...
Polly Bailey: How are you feeling? Nick Naylor: First time I'm thinking these cigarettes are really dangerous Bobby Jay Bliss: [Puts a gun on the table] you might be right about that, it might be small but it'll do the job, one shot BAM Polly Bailey:...
Sunflower poised against the sunset, crackly bleak and dusty with the smut and smog and smoke of olden locomotives in its eye— corolla of bleary spikes pushed down and broken like a battered crown, seeds fallen out of its face, soon-to-be-toothless...
It seemed to him that love was like a great fire, and that people went flying here and there among the flame and smoke seeking wildly for some rich jewel; and when they found it the flame died down; and, in the end, time polished the jewel into a cal...
Have you ever dealt with people who have lost everything in just an hour? In the morning you leave the house where your wife, your children, your parents live. You return and you find a smoking pit. Then something happens to you - to a certain extent...
Perhaps, he thought, his Master would only amuse himself with the little pain slut for a little while and then give her back to his faithful servant as an eternal plaything. The ghost chuckled at the thought of what he would do to that little slut if...
One of the stall doors swings open and a fortyish-year-old woman walks out tucking her shirt into her jeans. Her heavy lined eyes land on Seth. "This is the women's restroom." She points a finger to the door. "Can't you read?" "Can't you see that eve...
