I’m an observer. I am fascinated by people and how their minds work (and, of course, my own). Why we are the way we are, why we do the things we do – and that interest drives my writing. I was a physicist before fiction claimed my soul, so I’m ...
Well I'm not going to hope that you get hurt, but if you do, remember that you're my damsel in distress, and no one is allowed to carry you." "I don't remember signing a contract." "All the more reason to promise me now." "What if you're not around w...
The thing people don't understand about an army is its great, unpunctuated wastes of inaction: you have to scavenge for food, you are camped out somewhere with a rising water level because your mad capitaine says so, you are shifted abruptly in the m...
1) Work on one thing at a time until finished. 2) Start no more new books, add no more new material to "Black Spring." 3) Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand. 4) Work according to Program and not according to mo...
Kandinski looked up. 'Do you read science fiction?' he asked matter-of-factly. 'Not as a rule,' Ward admitted. When Kandinski said nothing he went on: 'Perhaps I’m too skeptical, but I can’t take it too seriously.' Kandinski pulled at a blister o...
a good woman was talked out of being with a good man and a good man talked himself out of being with that good woman because that good woman was talked out of being with that good man and so that good man stopped trying to be that good man and that g...
If more people understood how nice it is to have a sense of home that extends past our locked doors, past our neighbors' padlocks, to the local food co-op and library, the sidewalks busted up by old trees - if we all held home with longer arms - we'd...
You are clever man, friend John; you reason well, and your wit is bold; but you are too prejudiced. You do not let your eyes see nor your ears hear, and that which is outside your daily life is not of account to you. Do you not think that there are t...
The Death Eaters were waiting for us,” Harry told her. “We were surrounded the moment we took off — they knew it was tonight — I don’t know what happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then V...
Whatever it was that people experience in Jesus has today come to be identified with medieval doctrines based on premodern assumptions that are no longer believable. That identification means that serious theological discussion seems to accomplish li...
Gosh, it's easy!' he marveled, open-mouthed. 'I never knew before how easy it is to kill anyone! Twenty years to grow 'em, and all it takes is one little push!' He was suddenly drunk with some new kind of power, undiscovered until this minute. The po...
You guys know about vampires? … You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There’s this idea that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. And what I’ve always thought isn’t that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. I...
Loneliness is something that finds us all when we think about it and when we're by ourselves when we don't want to be. It creeps up when we desperately feel like we need someone special but can't seem to find anything more than a friend that wishes t...
Teddy: I'll kill you! Milo: You come on and try it, you slimy bastard. Chris: He wants you to come over there so he can beat the piss out of you and take you to the cops. Milo: You watch your mouth, smart guy! Let him do his own fighting. Gordie: Sur...
[a biker gang called The Satan's Messengers enters Sonny's bar wearing their biker clothes] Jimmy Whispers: Fellas, youse are not dressed properly. Youse gonna have to leave. Satan's Messengers: Properly? What's wrong with the way we're dressed? Sonn...
Cindy: What did it feel like when you fell in love? Gramma: Oh... oh dear, I don't think I found it Cindy: Even with grandpa? Gramma: Maybe a little, in the beginning. He didn't really have any regard for me as a person. You gotta be careful with tha...
[Alex has just struck Dim on the legs] Dim: What did you do that for? Alex: For being a bastard with no manners, and not a dook of an idea how to comport yourself public-wise, O my brother. Dim: I don't like you should do what you done, and I'm not y...
Ralphie as Adult: Round One was over. heh heh. Parents one, kids, zip. I can feel the Christmas noose beginning to tighten. Maybe, what happened next, was inevitable. Mother: Ralphie, what would you like for Christmas? Ralphie as Adult: Horrified, I ...
Sonny: I don't wanna talk to some flunky pig trying to calm me man. Det. Sgt. Eugene Moretti: Now you don't have to be calling me pig for... Sonny: [notices other officers moving toward him] What is he doing? Det. Sgt. Eugene Moretti: [shouts at offi...
[Pommeroy is reading to the class from the 1954 short story "The Destructors" by Graham Greene] Karen Pommeroy: "There would be headlines in the papers. Even the grown-up gangs who ran the betting at the all-in wrestling and the Barrow Boys would hea...
Batman: Where is Dent? The Joker: You have all these rules and you think they'll save you. Lt. James Gordon: [Batman slams the Joker against a wall] He's in control. Batman: I have one rule. The Joker: Oh, then that's the rule you'll have to break to...
