The time is ripe for looking back over the day, the week, the year, and trying to figure out where we have come from and where we are going to, for sifting through the things we have done and the things we have left undone for a clue to who we are an...
Kipster is a perfectly valid word,” Wendy argued, about to write down her score on the little notepad that had come with the game. “Okay, so what does it mean?” Mandy wanted to know. Wendy struggled to come up with an answer, and finally just c...
In the wake of his breakdown, Oswaldo had become hyperattuned to the way he, and people like him, were perceived. For his first three years at Yale, he'd been frustrated by these perceptions, feeling that they were inescapable, allowing that caged fe...
Miles had sworn his officer's oath to the Emperor less than two weeks ago, puffed with pride at his achievement. In his secret mind he had imagined himself keeping that oath through blazing battle, enemy torture, what-have-you, even while sharing cyn...
That was the only time, as I stood there, looking at that strange rubbish, feeling the wind coming across those empty fields, that I started to imagine just a little fantasy thing, because this was Norfolk after all, and it was only a couple of weeks...
There was a man here, lashed himself to a spar as his ship went down, and for seven days and seven nights he was on the sea, and what kept him alive while others drowned was telling himself stories like a madman, so that as one ended another began. O...
Most people, when directly confronted by evidence that they are wrong, do not change their point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously. Even irrefutable evidence is rarely enough to pierce the mental armor of self-justifica...
But she knew it would never happen. She had no intention of visiting him there. Even if she were open to the idea, as Mom and Dad both hoped she would be, the mathematics of it seemed utterly impossible to her. What was she supposed to do, spend Chri...
Hundreds of people began to care in a personal way about the suffering of farm workers because they care about you and learned that you were willing to go to jail with striking farm workers,” Chris wrote the delegates from the Jesuit spirituality c...
This week in live current events: your eyes. All power can be dangerous: Direct or alternating, you, socket to me. Plugged in and the grid is humming, this electricity, molecule-deep desire: particular friction, a charge strong enough to stop a heart...
It hadn't occurred to me that my mother would die. Until she was dying, the thought had never entered my mind. She was monolithic and insurmountable, the keeper of my life. She would grow old and still work in the garden. This image was fixed in my m...
At the high school a pretty girl strolled across the parking lot to her black stallion, let her cigarette dangle from her lips while she put on her helmet, adjusted her goggles. Throwing a slender white leg over the side she jacked her little backsid...
Toasted almond pancakes. Sweet soft 'okays'. Makin' me laugh more in a few weeks than I have in decades. 'Yes, Daddys' I feel in my dick. The first voicemail you left me, babe. I saved it and I listen to it once a day. If I lose focus, I see you on y...
Sally: I saw a film the other day about syphilis. Ugh! It was too awful. I couldn't let a man touch me for a week. Is it true you can get it from kissing? Fritz: Oh, yes. And your king, Henry VIII, got it from Cardinal Wolsey whispering in his ear. N...
[last lines] Henry Hill: [narrating] Anything I wanted was a phone call away. Free cars. The keys to a dozen hideout flats all over the city. I bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend and then I'd either blow the winnings in a week or go to the shark...
Mr. Potter: [on the telephone] George, there is a rumor around town that you closed your doors. Is that true? [pause] Mr. Potter: Oh, well, I'm very glad to hear that. George, are you all right? Do you need any police? George Bailey: Police? What for...
Lydia Harris: [over the phone] Is this a bad time? Bob: [pauses] No, it's always a good time. Lydia Harris: The burgundy carpet is out of stock: it's going to take twelve weeks. Did you like any of the other colors? Bob: Whatever you like - I'm just ...
Burt Hadley: Oh shit. This is the wrong room. You're in 304 now. I'm sorry. I fucked up. Leonard Shelby: This is not my room? Burt Hadley: No, come on, let's go. Leonard Shelby: Why is this my handwriting? Burt Hadley: ...This was your room, but now ...
[Noodles gives Moe a letter to read] Fat Moe: Who's Robert Williams? Noodles: I am. Fat Moe: [reading] "We wish to inform you that following the sale of the Beth Israel Cemetery..." The synagogue sent these out if you wanted to relocate your loved on...
Court Doctor: [repeatedly] Can you hear me? Can you see me? Prisoner: Yes, sir. Court Doctor: OK for work. Court Doctor: [arriving at Tyrone's place in the line] Can you hear me? Can you see me? Tyrone: [nods, whispering] Yes, sir, yes, sir. Prison G...
Nice Guy Eddie: Yeah I'm sorry, I should have picked you up myself. This whole week has been fucked up, I've had my head up my ass the whole time. Mr. Blonde: You know, that's funny, 'cause that's what me and your dad were just talkin' about. Nice Gu...
