You are the books you read, the films you watch, the music you listen to, the people you meet, the dreams you have, the conversations you engage in. You are what you take from these. You are the sound of the ocean, the breath of fresh air, the bright...
Everything I know, everything I put in my fiction, will hurt someone somewhere as surely as it will comfort and enlighten someone else. What then is my responsibility? What am I to restrain? What am I to fear and alter--my own nakedness or the grief ...
I spend a lot of time with young people now, bright, public-spirited kids from across the political spectrum who give me hope for the future...They want to have an impact, but they're not sure that politics is a viable path on which to do that. Congr...
It is very difficult to develop a proper sense of self-esteem in a dysfunctional family. Having very little self-worth, looking at one’s own character defects becomes so overwhelming there is no room for inward focus. People so afflicted think: “...
[O]ver the years I travelled to another universe. However alert we are, however much we think we know what will happen, antiquity remains an unknown, unanticipated galaxy. It is alien, and old people are a separate form of life. They have green skin,...
Sometimes I think that creativity is a matter of seeing, or stumbling over, unobvious similarities between things—like composing a fresh metaphor, but on a more complex scale. One night in Hiroshima it occurred to me that the moon behind a certain ...
Truth be told, evolution hasn’t yielded many practical or commercial benefits. Yes, bacteria evolve drug resistance, and yes, we must take countermeasures, but beyond that there is not much to say. Evolution cannot help us predict what new vaccines...
For so long considered a second-rate category to other writing genres, Science Fiction should be allotted its true place in literature. The reason Science Fiction is so important is because SF authors create the future. They bring through ideas, tech...
Nationalism and socialism as actually lived and applied in the 20th century are the same thing (and in the 18th and 19th century, nationalism was often a force for classical liberalism!). It’s all a kind of reactionary tribalism (another “ism” ...
Juno: Okay, have you been studying the manual? Adam: Well, we tried. Juno: The intermediate interface chapter on haunting says it all. Get them out yourselves. It's your house. Haunted houses aren't easy to come by. Barbara: Well, we don't quite get ...
Denholme Cavendish: [answering phone in the middle of the night] Ugh, who the bloody hell is this? Have you any idea what time it is? Timothy Cavendish: Denny, it's me, Tim Denholme Cavendish: Timothy? Where are you? Timothy Cavendish: I think you ru...
Thomas Button: [runs upstairs to see Caroline and his newborn but sees a room full of people and Caroline bleeding. Soon, the pastor enters the room] What are you doing here? Dr. Rose: Thomas. It's Caroline. She's going to die. Thomas Button: No. No,...
Casson: No wonder our people are giving up, they've lost faith! Montclair: We've failed them every single time! Col. Rodin: We won't fail them again! Casson: What can we do? We're paralyzed! Montclair: Every cop in France has memorized our faces! Inf...
The Joker: [over the PA] Tonight you're all gonna be part of a social experiment. Through the magic of diesel fuel and ammonium nitrate, I'm ready right now to blow you all sky high. Anyone attempts to get off their boat, you all die. Each of you has...
Batman: Beautiful, isn't it? Lucius Fox: Beautiful... unethical... dangerous. You've turned every cellphone in Gotham into a microphone. Batman: And a high-frequency generator-receiver. Lucius Fox: You took my sonar concept and applied it to every ph...
[the Joker has rigged two ferries to explode, one filled with prison inmates, one with ordinary people, giving each ferry one detonator and telling them they have to blow up the other, or he'll blow up both. A prisoner approaches the warden, who's ho...
Billy Costigan: Frank, how many of these guys have been with you long enough to be disgruntled, huh? Think about it. You don't pay much, you know. It's almost a fuckin' feudal enterprise. The question is, and this is the only question, who thinks tha...
Dr. King Schultz: And as if on cue, here comes the sheriff! Sheriff Bill Sharp: [Comes in tavern] Okay, boys, fun's over! Come on out. [Bill Sharp leads Schultz and Django outside while an anxious crowd watches] Sheriff Bill Sharp: Alright folks, cal...
Alex: How much currency would a first-rate accountant receive in America? Jonathan: I don't know, a lot, probably, if he or she is good. Alex: She? Jonathan: Or he. Alex: Are there Negro accountants? Jonathan: Yes, there are *African American* accoun...
Mr. X: I thought I heard a stranger. We've got chicken tonight. Strangest damn things. They're man made. Little damn things. Smaller than my fist. But they're new. Hi, I'm Bill. Henry Spencer: Hello there. I'm Henry. Mrs. X: Henry works at LaPelle's ...
Tyler Durden: Now, ancient people found their clothes got cleaner if they washed them at a certain spot in the river. You know why? Narrator: No. Tyler Durden: Human sacrifices were once made on the hills above this river. Bodies burnt, water speeded...
