If you want to know why all writers are a little crazy read 'The Midnight Disease' by Alice W. Flaherty. She talks about the drive to write, writer's block, and the creative brain. I know what's wrong with me!
There are two kinds of sculptures. There's the kind that subtracts: Michelangelo starts with a block of marble and chips away. And then there is the kind that adds, building with clay, piling it on. The way I write novels is to keep piling on and pil...
I try to write in plain brown blocks of American speech but occasionally set in an ancient word or a strange word just to startle the reader a little bit and to break up the monotony of the plain American cadence.
I would say that the Pentagon Papers case of 1971 - in which the government tried to block the The New York Times and The Washington Post that they obtained from a secret study of how we got involved in the war in Vietnam - that is probably the most ...
For me, Glasgow is all about the people and the spirit of the place. You have enough Gregg's bakers, though, I'll say that. The opening of the 1977 'Star Wars' movie was possibly the only time I've seen a longer queue round the block than in Glasgow ...
The benefit of this kind of outlining is that you discover a story's flaws before you invest a lot of time writing the first draft, and it's almost impossible to get stuck at a difficult chapter, because you've already done the work to push through t...
Teaching is a distraction and a burden, but it's also an incredible stimulus. And a reprieve, in a way. When you're trying to work on something and it's not going anywhere, you can go to school and there's a two-and-a-half-hour block of time in which...
A century ago, scientists believed there was only one obvious stomping ground for alien biology in our solar system: Mars. Because it was reminiscent of Earth, Mars was assumed to be chock-a-block with animate beings, and its putative inhabitants got...
Cookie: How come you got all this money? Harry Block: I always keep hooker money around, you know, 'cause I once paid by check years ago and the I.R.S. killed me.
Harry Block: [referring to Cookie] She's got a PhD, this girl. Doris: Really? [Sarcastically] Doris: I don't know how she did on her written, but I'm sure she got an A on her orals!
Harry Block: [to his brother-in-law] I don't think you're a paranoid. I think you're the opposite of a paranoid. I think you go around with the insane delusion that everybody likes you!
Dr. Dakota Block: I want you to to take this gun, and if anyone comes to the door who's not me, I want you to shoot them. Shoot them in the head - just like in your video games.
[watching a young woman get burned at the stake] Jöns: Who will take care care of that child? Is it the angels or God or Satan or the emptiness? The emptiness, Sire? Antonius Block: It can't be so!
I was trying to spend it as quickly as possible. Because I'm so lazy, all that money created a block. I was flying around the world, staying at fancy hotels, having fun and trying to get rid of it as quickly as possible, so I could get on with some m...
I wanted to make an Indian character who wasn't either a) the savage that must be eliminated, the force of nature that's blocking the way for industrial progress, or b) the noble innocent that knows all and is another cliche. I wanted him to be a com...
I would love to be a guys' girl, but they always end up falling in love with me, so I'm a girls' girl instead. I've tried having friendly relationships with men, but it ends up being impossible, and I've been around the block too many times not to se...
We are neurologically hardwired to seek out people like ourselves. We start forming cliques as soon as we're old enough to know what acceptance feels like. We bond together based on anything that we can - music preference, race, gender, the block tha...
It's a risk, but I'm sort of ready to let go of thinking of movies as books that you can watch. The notion of, 'If I put the narrative blocks in the right order, this will solve all of my storytelling problems.' No, it won't, and you end up with litt...
Frank Lucas: Now, I got no problem with you showin' up in court tomorrow with your head blown in half. Detective Richie Roberts: Get in line. That one stretches around the block too.
[from trailer] Frank Lucas: It don't mean nothing to me for you to show up tomorrow morning with your head blown off. Detective Richie Roberts: Get in line. That one stretches around the block.
"Hoot": [speaking about the shooting earlier] Nice man, very smooth. Gordon: Single shot through the engine block. "Hoot": Shit, that's a shame. That was a nice jeep.
