There is nothing like the moment you connect with a reader! Nothing like the response that you get when what you have written touches someone in some way. It's a moment in which your work is almost a co-creation, you and the reader joining forces to ...
Friendship is a sacred thing and I do not extend the word lightly. I've had long-term romances in my life but few genuine friendships. I am exceedingly picky about who I let in my inner circle and because of that I have a few friends and many acquain...
I write when the urge hits me, getting the words down as fast as I can type and then I step back from what I just wrote and start a dialectical process where I begin challenging my own writing.
We speak, and write, in one of the most diverse, gloriously ecumenical tongues on the planet. In English, there is a word or phrase for pretty much anything we want to say, and if there isn't, we make it up, and it is welcomed into the family. We can...
...The words testament and covenant are virtually synonymous in their theological usage, the Latin definition of testamentum being "a covenant with God, holy scripture." Thus, the Old and New Testaments, as we commonly refer to them, are written test...
We carry about us the burden of what thousands of people have said and the memories of all our misfortunes. To abandon all that is to be alone, and the mind that is alone is not only innocent but young -- not in time or age, but young, innocent, aliv...
Well, I don't know about objectivity, but I know for certain that it's always possible for a professional journalist who understands what he or she's up to to be fair, and that's the key word. Fairness to individuals, fairness to ideas, and to issues...
I have a whole iPod full of exceptionally bad music, truly awful stuff including a disproportionate number of one hit wonders from the early '80s and lots of hair bands. I find it utterly impossible to love a song until I know every single word, so l...
I think that anyone who likes writing views 'The New Yorker' as the, you know, pinnacle of the publishing world. If you get 50 words published in 'The New Yorker,' it's more important than 50 articles in other places. So, would I love to one day writ...
I have never successfully written in the third person. If there's a rhythm or a musicality that interests me, I become obsessed with the character, and I just have this need to spend time with him or her. Sometimes I'll be in the park playing ball, a...
Because I spend so much time traveling, I tend to do most of my reading on the same iPad on which I write. For me, it's words, not paper, that matter most in the end. This practice has had the additional benefit of greatly reducing the time I spend s...
Donnie Brasco: Hey Richie, what are you trying to do, get me killed with that fucking suit? Richard 'Richie' Gazzo: What? Donnie Brasco: That fucking car, purple fucking car. Don't say the word plotz, you understand? Richard 'Richie' Gazzo: Yeah, yea...
Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb: [regarding The Joker's threat on his life] You're unlikely to discover this for yourself, so take my word, the police commissioner gets a lot of threats. I found the appropriate response to these situations a long time a...
[after slapping Blanche and holding her down] Driver: Now, you just got a little boy's father killed. And you almost got us killed. And now you're lying to me. So how about this? From now on, every word out of your mouth is the truth. Or I'm going to...
John Preston: I'll do what I can to see they go easy on you. Partridge: We both know they never "go easy". John Preston: Then, I'm sorry. Partridge: No, you're not. You don't even know the meaning. Its just a vestigial word for a feeling you've never...
Uther Pendragon: To kill and be king, is that all? Merlin: Perhaps not even that. Uther Pendragon: You strike me with words hard as steel! Merlin: You betrayed the Duke. You stole his wife. You took his castle. Now no one trusts you. You're not the o...
Joe: You shoot to kill, you better hit the heart. Your own words, Ramone. [Ramone fires off two shots, but The Man With No Name stands right back up] Joe: The heart, Ramone. Don't forget the heart. Aim for the heart, or you'll never stop me.
English Teacher: [speaking very slowly] In... what... way... does the author's use of the prison [takes chalk and draws prison bars through the word 'prison' on blackboard] English Teacher: symbolize the protagonist's struggle, and how does this rela...
Andre: My brother taught me what the life is for a young black man. Pimp, deal, whatever. Learn what colors to wear. Gang banners. You can sell to one corner, but you can't sell another. Learn to be quiet. The wrong word can get you popped.
Police Detective: [to Henry] Talk to me, when was the last time you took a collar? Hey fuckhead, I'm talking to you. You don't wanna say a fucking word to me, you don't have to. I don't really give a fuck. Twenty five years, pal, that's what you're l...
Hyman Roth: [his last words] I'm a retired investor living on a pension. I came home to vote in the Presidential Election because they wouldn't give me an absentee ballot. [Seconds later, Rocco walks up to Roth and shoots him in the stomach, killing ...
