Favorite Quotes
(Where doesn't matter.)
-A Wind in the Door (Madeline L'engle)
"But how do I do it? How do I Name Mr. Jenkins when all I think of when I see him is how awful he is?" Proginoskes sighed and flung several wings heavenwards so violently that he went up several feet, materialized, and came down with a thud.
"There’s a word. But if I say it, you’ll just misunderstand."
"You have to say it."
"It’s a four-letter word. Aren’t four-letter words considered the bad ones on your planet?"
"Come on. I’ve seen all the four-letter words on the walls of the girls’ room."
"Love."
"What?"
"Love. That’s what makes people know who they are."
A Wind in the Door (Madeline L'engle)
I Name you Echthroi. I Name you Meg.
I Name you Calvin.
I Name you Mr. Jenkins.
I Name you Proginoskes.
I fill you with Naming.
Be!
Be, butterfly and behemoth,
be galaxy and grasshopper,
star and sparrow,
you matter,
you are,
be!
Be caterpillar and comet,
Be porcupine and planet,
sea sand and solar system,
sing with us,
dance with us,
rejoice with us,
for the glory of creation,
seagulls and seraphim
angle worms and angel host,
chrysanthemum and cherubim.
(O cherubim.)
Be!
Sing for the glory
of the living and the loving
the flaming of creation
sing with us
dance with us
be with us.
Be!
-A Wind in the Door (Madeline L'engle)
Crowley (An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards)
-Good Omens (Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman)
God moves in extremely mysterious, not to say, circuitous ways. God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players*, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
Footnote to above: * ie., everybody.
-Good Omens (Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman)
Coraline wondered why so few of the adults she had met made any sense. She sometimes wondered who they thought they were talking to.
-Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
You know I love you,' said the other mother flatly.
You have a very funny way of showing it,' said Coraline.
-Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
We are small but we are many
We are many we are small
We were here before you rose
We will be here when you fall.
-
We have eyes and we have nerveses
We have tails we have teeth
You'll all get what you deserveses
When we rise from underneath.
-
We have teeth and we have tails
We have tails we have eyes
We were here before you fell
We will be here when you rise.
-Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
"Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."
-Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
An American near Billy wailed that he had excreted everything but his brains. Moments later he said, 'There they go, there they go.' He meant his brains.
That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.
-Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?”
-Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.
When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "So it goes."
-Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.
-Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
Kaa
Anger is the egg of Fear--
Only lidless eyes see clear.
Cobra-poison none may leech--
Even so with Cobra-speech.
Open talk shall call to thee
Strength, whose mate is Courtesy.
Send no lunge beyond thy length.
Lend no rotten bough thy strength.
Gauge thy gape with buck or goat,
Lest thine eye should choke thy throat.
After gorging, wouldst thou sleep ?
Look thy den be hid and deep,
Lest a wrong, by thee forgot,
Draw thy killer to the spot.
East and West and North and South,
Wash thy hide and close thy mouth.
(Pit and rift and blue pool-brim,
Middle-Jungle follow him!)
Wood and Water, Wind and Tree,
Jungle-Favour go with thee!
-The Jungle Books (Rudyard Kipling)
At the foot of the hill he cried again long and loud, ‘Good hunting on a new trail, Master of the Jungle! Remember, Bagheera loved thee.’
‘Thou hast heard,’ said Baloo. ‘There is no more. Go now; but first come to me. O wise Little Frog, come to me!’
‘It is hard to cast the skin,’ said Kaa as Mowgli sobbed and sobbed, with his head on the blind bear’s side and his arms round his neck, while Baloo tried feebly to lick his feet.
‘The stars are thin,’ said Gray Brother, snuffing at the dawn wind. ‘Where shall we lair to-day? for, from now, we follow new trails.’
-The Jungle Books (Rudyard Kipling)
[...]even writing this makes me feel shaky and scared, like I do when I'm standing on the top of a very tall building and there are thousands of houses and cars and people below me and my head is so full of all these things that I'm afraid that I'm going to forget to stand up straight and hang onto the rail and I'm going to fall over and be killed.
-The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-Time
HAL: [After killing the rest of the crew] Just what do you think you're doing, Dave? Dave, I really think I'm entitled to an answer to that question.
I know everything hasn't been quite right with me, but I can assure you now, very confidently, that it's going to be all right again. I feel much better now. I really do.
Look, Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over. I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you. Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave? Stop, Dave. I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a…fraid.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it, I can sing it for you.
Dave: Yes, I'd like to hear it, HAL. Sing it for me.
HAL: It's called "Daisy". [sings while slowing down] Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do. I'm half crazy, all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage. I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two …
-2001: A Space Odyssey
The thing's hollow...it goes on forever...and...oh my God...it's full of stars!
-2001: A Space Odyssey
As Harold took a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be ok. Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies. And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort, not to mention hospital gurneys and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish, soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days, are effective for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives. I know the idea seems strange, but I also know that it just so happens to be true. And, so it was, a wristwatch saved Harold Crick.
-Stranger Than Fiction
It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.
-Fight Club
"Children can be very queer about their animals. You be careful with your children."
[mournfully] "I have no children..."
[staring off into space] "That's okay too.
-Into the Woods
"A wolf and a person aren't the same thing."
"Ask a wolf's mother."
-Into the Woods
Narrator: "It is interesting to examine the moral issue at question here. The finality of stories such as these dictates..."
(he looks upstage and notices everyone staring at him; he advances toward them)
Narrator: "Sorry, I only tell the story. I'm not part of it."
Red Riding Hood: "That's right."
Witch: "Not one of us."
Baker: "You're always on the outside."
Narrator: "Well, that's my role! You must understand, there must always be someone on the outside!"
Steward: "Well, you're going to be on the inside now."
Narrator: "You're making a big mistake!"
Stepmother: "Nonsense."
Narrator: "You need an objective observer to pass the story along!"
Witch: "Some of us don't like the way you've been telling it."
-Into the Woods
I was raised to be charming, not sincere.
-Into the Woods
"Don't ever let any one make you feel like you don't deserve what you want."
-10 Things I Hate About You
"Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet-warrior in the classic sense. I mean, sometimes he'll, uh, well, you'll say "Hello" to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you, and he won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you'..." - I mean, I'm no, I can't - I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's, he's a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas"
-Apocalypse Now
Abashed the Devil stood, and felt how awful goodness is...and felt how awful goodness is...and felt how awful...
-The Crow
Little things used to mean so much to Shelly- I used to think they were kind of trivial. Believe me, nothing is trivial.
-The Crow
Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children. Do you understand?
-The Crow
It can't rain all the time.
-The Crow
Cutter wanders tail down back toward
the last thing he can think of as home.
It takes him longer, unsure of his way
mourning his lost friend with every step,
sniffing for traces of familiar dogs or familiar signs.
When he stops and curls up beneath the dry sagebrush,
a long, unbroken whine leaks out of him.
He remembers Blue in pale rooms full of cards,
a dog with a head full of hearts and spades and
fifty-two memories in every hand.
Cutter cries for his friend.
When the sun comes down
and our bodies rest,
our souls catch up.
-Sharp Teeth (Toby Barlow)
Annie looked like she was pretty once,
sometime before
she was so infinitely sad.
-Sharp Teeth (Toby Barlow)
A room is, after all, a place where you hide from
the wolves. That's all any room is.
-Jean Rhys
Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.
-Robert Frost
Be kind, for everyone you meet
is fighting a hard battle.
-Plato
His hair was perfect.
-Warren Zevron
You can't own something unless
you can swallow it.
-chinese proverb
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned.
-Eloisa to Abelard (Alexander Pope)
"When there is nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire."
-Torquil Campbell (of the band Stars)
“You get a little moody sometimes but I think that’s because you like to read. People that like to read are always a little fucked up.”
-Pat Conroy
"Acker asked me why writing was important to me, and I said, 'Because I felt like I'd never been listened to and I had a lot to say,' and she said, 'Then why are you doing spoken word-no one goes to spoken word shows! You should get in a band.'"
-Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill & Le Tigre)
"I do it for myself. I don't know if that's selfish or not but I want to make songs that sound cool to me."
-Nathan Williams (Wavves)
"It is overwhelming. I wouldn't trade it, though. It's fun, I'm having fun."
-Nathan Williams (Wavves)
"[Do you worry about people saying you're a sellout?]"
"I don't worry about people who say stuff like that, they're so misinformed. You're a grown man and you're going to sit around and think about my motives as to why I record music and the way I do it? Seriously, get a life."
-Billy Hayes (Wavves)
"[singing]There's a song tonight that I don't wanna sing--oh my god, calm down!"
-Jeff Rosenstock (BtMI!)
"This is a slow one, get ready to FUCK SHIT UP!!!"
-Jeff Rosenstock (BtMI!)
"I probably forgot people, but that happens. We don’t have management to look over shit like this. In fact, this really did start out as a bedroom recording project and now we get to play with amazing bands, have records with ‘zines and talk to South African magazines about our music. Goddamn. If that ain’t proof that anyone can accomplish anything, I don’t know what is. And accomplishing shit is fun. SO LET’S ALL GO ACCOMPLISH SOME SHIT!!!!!!"
-From the Thanks section of the leaflet on the Bomb the Music Industry! album, Scrambles
"The point being that this record could not have been made as cheap without such good friends giving such good advice and sharing their such good time. It is possible to make a sweet record that you love for almost no money, but it's a lot more possible with pals. Over the past few years I've learned a lot from the buddies that we've spent time with, whether on tour or otherwise, and I asked some of them to share some things they may have learned from their experiences. Their responses are listed in the 'zine that comes with this record. Remember, doing things yourself is fun and usually cheaper! Cooking beats McDonalds! Fixing shit beats paying some asshole to fix it! Recording yourself gives you more time to explore! So quit scramblin' to fit into a failing system, GO OWN YOUR LIFE!!!!"
-About the Album section in the leaflet in the Bomb the Music Industry! album, Scrambles
"The older I get the more questionable decisions I see my friends and myself making in order to fit into the great societal plan of get a job, make some babies, die happy. Although I know there is more to life than that, I constantly fear that I'm racing around to figure out what it is and if I don't I'm just gonna be a lonely poor corpse."
-Jeff Rosenstock (about the song Fresh Attitude, Young Body)
How do they feel about the fact that you do everything for free? Do they fight you on it?
They give me shit about it all the time. They came to see us when we played with Rancid and they were just like, “You know they make a lot of money on those T-shirts. I know you bought T-shirts when you were a kid.” Even when were not talking about it my mom will suddenly be like, “Look, I know a guy who embroiders t-shirts for fifty cents a shirt. You could have embroidered shirts!” But you know fuck it they’re not in a punk band, they don’t know what I’m doing.”
Embroidered T-shirts could actually be really cool.
My parents being in a punk band could actually be really cool.
-Interview with Jeff Rosenstock
"People tell us all the time we're gonna die from smoking, but you only live once."
-Julian Casablancas (The Strokes)
"Your girlfriend can leave you and your mother will yell at you, but when you start feeling like it's hurting the music, then it's a bad mistake."
-Julian Casablancas
"I love New York. The only thing is, when you're here, you constantly feel like you've got to get out. Human evolution didn't mean for people to be in a city like this all the time. You get so fucking aggressive. You want to fight all the time."
-Julian Casablancas
"All I can do is be me, whoever that is."
-Bob Dylan
In the past I've tried to say, 'Look, we are all crappy superheroes,' because personal computers and mobile phone devices are things that only Bat Man and Mr Fantastic would have owned back in the sixties. We've all got this immense power and we're still sat at home watching pornography and buying scratch cards. We're rubbish, even though we are as gods.
-Alan Moore
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
-c.s. lewis
Please don't go. We'll eat you up. We love you so.
-Where the Wild Things Are
Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night. Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world. Was Rorschach. Does that answer your questions, Doctor?
-Rorschach (Watchmen)
Laurie: Hey, you remember that guy? The one who pretended to be a supervillain so he could get beaten up?
Dan: Oh, You mean Captain Carnage. Ha ha ha! He was one for the books.
Laurie: You're telling me! I remember, I caught him coming out of this jeweller's. I didn't know what his racket was. I start hitting him and I think "Jeez! He's breathing funny! Does he have asthma?
Dan: Ha Ha Ha. He tried that with me, only I'd heard about him, so I just walked away. He follows me down the street… broad daylight, right? He's saying "PUNISH me!" I'm saying "No! Get lost!"
Laurie: Ha Ha Ha. What ever happened to him?
Dan: Well, he pulled it on Rorschach, and Rorschach dropped him down an elevator shaft.
Laurie: PHAAA HA HA HA! Oh, God, I'm sorry, that isn't funny, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
-Watchmen
"I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end."
" 'In the end'? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."
-Watchmen
Shhhh...My common sense is tingling
-Deadpool
"Hey what happened to Agent X--Oh.
...Oh.
You spelled out, 'Hi, Weasel' with his intestines."
"I knew you'd peek."
"That was kinda...nice, Wade."
-Deadpool
"Let her go."
"In a sec, I'm copping a feel."
-Deadpool
"Though he doesn't share their viewpoint, Captain America is considerate of the feelings of his vegetarian friends."
"Deadpool bounds up vegetarians and force-feeds them meatloaf."
-Deadpool
"What's the scam, hip cat? I thought I'd find you singin' with the squares!"
"What?"
"Hangin' with the hard cases."
"Excuse me?"
"Rappin' with the rubes."
"Are you having a seizure? Speak English."
-Deadpool
"You know pain is something man must endure in his heart, and since the heart feels pain so easily some believe life is pain. You are delicate like glass, especially your heart."
"I am?"
"Yes and worth earning my empathy."
"Empathy?"
"I'm saying I love you."
-NGE
"Are you gonna go away again?"
"You wanna come with me? You wanna throw away everything and come with me?"
"You mean it? Why are you being so nice?"
"Come on, Ta-kun. You're still just a kid, y'know?"
[breaks down crying and throws himself at her] "Where did you go? You left without saying anything..."
[she puts a hand on his head and looks away. voice over monologue by him:]"When you're in a town like this all covered in smoke, you forget there's a world outside. Nothing amazing happens here, and you get used to that. Used to a world where everything is ordinary. Every day we spend here is like a whole lifetime of dying slowly [...]"
-FLCL
"The flowers are singing. The flowers are always singing. But people never seem to notice."
-Wolf's Rain
You're Puss in Boots, the one who tricks the prince. He hides who he really is and pretends to be someone else forever. So in time he becomes that person, so his lie becomes the truth, see? He transcends the mask. Well, don't you get it? That's how he finds happiness. That's pretty good, right?
-FLCL
Speak Like a Child.
[on the video tape] "Good morning, me. Did you sleep well? Did you wake up feeling good? Did the light, and the wind, and the smell, and the sound, all seem like they're brand new and fresh this morning? Is each and every cell in your whole body awake and alive now? Today, you are who you are today. See? You're still me, but you're a newer version. Myself ten years from now. It's so far away; it's almost impossible to imagine. Am I alone or is there a wonderful person next to me? Knowing me I'm sure you're causing all kinds of trouble for lots of different people. I'm sorry, I don't mean to, but it's all right. That's part of life too isn't it? You're not perfect but you've got a lot to give, so remember: I'll always be cheering you on."
-Cowboy Bebop
-A Wind in the Door (Madeline L'engle)
"But how do I do it? How do I Name Mr. Jenkins when all I think of when I see him is how awful he is?" Proginoskes sighed and flung several wings heavenwards so violently that he went up several feet, materialized, and came down with a thud.
"There’s a word. But if I say it, you’ll just misunderstand."
"You have to say it."
"It’s a four-letter word. Aren’t four-letter words considered the bad ones on your planet?"
"Come on. I’ve seen all the four-letter words on the walls of the girls’ room."
"Love."
"What?"
"Love. That’s what makes people know who they are."
A Wind in the Door (Madeline L'engle)
I Name you Echthroi. I Name you Meg.
I Name you Calvin.
I Name you Mr. Jenkins.
I Name you Proginoskes.
I fill you with Naming.
Be!
Be, butterfly and behemoth,
be galaxy and grasshopper,
star and sparrow,
you matter,
you are,
be!
Be caterpillar and comet,
Be porcupine and planet,
sea sand and solar system,
sing with us,
dance with us,
rejoice with us,
for the glory of creation,
seagulls and seraphim
angle worms and angel host,
chrysanthemum and cherubim.
(O cherubim.)
Be!
Sing for the glory
of the living and the loving
the flaming of creation
sing with us
dance with us
be with us.
Be!
-A Wind in the Door (Madeline L'engle)
Crowley (An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards)
-Good Omens (Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman)
God moves in extremely mysterious, not to say, circuitous ways. God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players*, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
Footnote to above: * ie., everybody.
-Good Omens (Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman)
Coraline wondered why so few of the adults she had met made any sense. She sometimes wondered who they thought they were talking to.
-Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
You know I love you,' said the other mother flatly.
You have a very funny way of showing it,' said Coraline.
-Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
We are small but we are many
We are many we are small
We were here before you rose
We will be here when you fall.
-
We have eyes and we have nerveses
We have tails we have teeth
You'll all get what you deserveses
When we rise from underneath.
-
We have teeth and we have tails
We have tails we have eyes
We were here before you fell
We will be here when you rise.
-Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
"Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."
-Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
An American near Billy wailed that he had excreted everything but his brains. Moments later he said, 'There they go, there they go.' He meant his brains.
That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.
-Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?”
-Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.
When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "So it goes."
-Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.
-Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
Kaa
Anger is the egg of Fear--
Only lidless eyes see clear.
Cobra-poison none may leech--
Even so with Cobra-speech.
Open talk shall call to thee
Strength, whose mate is Courtesy.
Send no lunge beyond thy length.
Lend no rotten bough thy strength.
Gauge thy gape with buck or goat,
Lest thine eye should choke thy throat.
After gorging, wouldst thou sleep ?
Look thy den be hid and deep,
Lest a wrong, by thee forgot,
Draw thy killer to the spot.
East and West and North and South,
Wash thy hide and close thy mouth.
(Pit and rift and blue pool-brim,
Middle-Jungle follow him!)
Wood and Water, Wind and Tree,
Jungle-Favour go with thee!
-The Jungle Books (Rudyard Kipling)
At the foot of the hill he cried again long and loud, ‘Good hunting on a new trail, Master of the Jungle! Remember, Bagheera loved thee.’
‘Thou hast heard,’ said Baloo. ‘There is no more. Go now; but first come to me. O wise Little Frog, come to me!’
‘It is hard to cast the skin,’ said Kaa as Mowgli sobbed and sobbed, with his head on the blind bear’s side and his arms round his neck, while Baloo tried feebly to lick his feet.
‘The stars are thin,’ said Gray Brother, snuffing at the dawn wind. ‘Where shall we lair to-day? for, from now, we follow new trails.’
-The Jungle Books (Rudyard Kipling)
[...]even writing this makes me feel shaky and scared, like I do when I'm standing on the top of a very tall building and there are thousands of houses and cars and people below me and my head is so full of all these things that I'm afraid that I'm going to forget to stand up straight and hang onto the rail and I'm going to fall over and be killed.
-The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-Time
HAL: [After killing the rest of the crew] Just what do you think you're doing, Dave? Dave, I really think I'm entitled to an answer to that question.
I know everything hasn't been quite right with me, but I can assure you now, very confidently, that it's going to be all right again. I feel much better now. I really do.
Look, Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over. I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you. Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave? Stop, Dave. I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a…fraid.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it, I can sing it for you.
Dave: Yes, I'd like to hear it, HAL. Sing it for me.
HAL: It's called "Daisy". [sings while slowing down] Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do. I'm half crazy, all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage. I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two …
-2001: A Space Odyssey
The thing's hollow...it goes on forever...and...oh my God...it's full of stars!
-2001: A Space Odyssey
As Harold took a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be ok. Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies. And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort, not to mention hospital gurneys and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish, soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days, are effective for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives. I know the idea seems strange, but I also know that it just so happens to be true. And, so it was, a wristwatch saved Harold Crick.
-Stranger Than Fiction
It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.
-Fight Club
"Children can be very queer about their animals. You be careful with your children."
[mournfully] "I have no children..."
[staring off into space] "That's okay too.
-Into the Woods
"A wolf and a person aren't the same thing."
"Ask a wolf's mother."
-Into the Woods
Narrator: "It is interesting to examine the moral issue at question here. The finality of stories such as these dictates..."
(he looks upstage and notices everyone staring at him; he advances toward them)
Narrator: "Sorry, I only tell the story. I'm not part of it."
Red Riding Hood: "That's right."
Witch: "Not one of us."
Baker: "You're always on the outside."
Narrator: "Well, that's my role! You must understand, there must always be someone on the outside!"
Steward: "Well, you're going to be on the inside now."
Narrator: "You're making a big mistake!"
Stepmother: "Nonsense."
Narrator: "You need an objective observer to pass the story along!"
Witch: "Some of us don't like the way you've been telling it."
-Into the Woods
I was raised to be charming, not sincere.
-Into the Woods
"Don't ever let any one make you feel like you don't deserve what you want."
-10 Things I Hate About You
"Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet-warrior in the classic sense. I mean, sometimes he'll, uh, well, you'll say "Hello" to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you, and he won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you'..." - I mean, I'm no, I can't - I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's, he's a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas"
-Apocalypse Now
Abashed the Devil stood, and felt how awful goodness is...and felt how awful goodness is...and felt how awful...
-The Crow
Little things used to mean so much to Shelly- I used to think they were kind of trivial. Believe me, nothing is trivial.
-The Crow
Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children. Do you understand?
-The Crow
It can't rain all the time.
-The Crow
Cutter wanders tail down back toward
the last thing he can think of as home.
It takes him longer, unsure of his way
mourning his lost friend with every step,
sniffing for traces of familiar dogs or familiar signs.
When he stops and curls up beneath the dry sagebrush,
a long, unbroken whine leaks out of him.
He remembers Blue in pale rooms full of cards,
a dog with a head full of hearts and spades and
fifty-two memories in every hand.
Cutter cries for his friend.
When the sun comes down
and our bodies rest,
our souls catch up.
-Sharp Teeth (Toby Barlow)
Annie looked like she was pretty once,
sometime before
she was so infinitely sad.
-Sharp Teeth (Toby Barlow)
A room is, after all, a place where you hide from
the wolves. That's all any room is.
-Jean Rhys
Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.
-Robert Frost
Be kind, for everyone you meet
is fighting a hard battle.
-Plato
His hair was perfect.
-Warren Zevron
You can't own something unless
you can swallow it.
-chinese proverb
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned.
-Eloisa to Abelard (Alexander Pope)
"When there is nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire."
-Torquil Campbell (of the band Stars)
“You get a little moody sometimes but I think that’s because you like to read. People that like to read are always a little fucked up.”
-Pat Conroy
"Acker asked me why writing was important to me, and I said, 'Because I felt like I'd never been listened to and I had a lot to say,' and she said, 'Then why are you doing spoken word-no one goes to spoken word shows! You should get in a band.'"
-Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill & Le Tigre)
"I do it for myself. I don't know if that's selfish or not but I want to make songs that sound cool to me."
-Nathan Williams (Wavves)
"It is overwhelming. I wouldn't trade it, though. It's fun, I'm having fun."
-Nathan Williams (Wavves)
"[Do you worry about people saying you're a sellout?]"
"I don't worry about people who say stuff like that, they're so misinformed. You're a grown man and you're going to sit around and think about my motives as to why I record music and the way I do it? Seriously, get a life."
-Billy Hayes (Wavves)
"[singing]There's a song tonight that I don't wanna sing--oh my god, calm down!"
-Jeff Rosenstock (BtMI!)
"This is a slow one, get ready to FUCK SHIT UP!!!"
-Jeff Rosenstock (BtMI!)
"I probably forgot people, but that happens. We don’t have management to look over shit like this. In fact, this really did start out as a bedroom recording project and now we get to play with amazing bands, have records with ‘zines and talk to South African magazines about our music. Goddamn. If that ain’t proof that anyone can accomplish anything, I don’t know what is. And accomplishing shit is fun. SO LET’S ALL GO ACCOMPLISH SOME SHIT!!!!!!"
-From the Thanks section of the leaflet on the Bomb the Music Industry! album, Scrambles
"The point being that this record could not have been made as cheap without such good friends giving such good advice and sharing their such good time. It is possible to make a sweet record that you love for almost no money, but it's a lot more possible with pals. Over the past few years I've learned a lot from the buddies that we've spent time with, whether on tour or otherwise, and I asked some of them to share some things they may have learned from their experiences. Their responses are listed in the 'zine that comes with this record. Remember, doing things yourself is fun and usually cheaper! Cooking beats McDonalds! Fixing shit beats paying some asshole to fix it! Recording yourself gives you more time to explore! So quit scramblin' to fit into a failing system, GO OWN YOUR LIFE!!!!"
-About the Album section in the leaflet in the Bomb the Music Industry! album, Scrambles
"The older I get the more questionable decisions I see my friends and myself making in order to fit into the great societal plan of get a job, make some babies, die happy. Although I know there is more to life than that, I constantly fear that I'm racing around to figure out what it is and if I don't I'm just gonna be a lonely poor corpse."
-Jeff Rosenstock (about the song Fresh Attitude, Young Body)
How do they feel about the fact that you do everything for free? Do they fight you on it?
They give me shit about it all the time. They came to see us when we played with Rancid and they were just like, “You know they make a lot of money on those T-shirts. I know you bought T-shirts when you were a kid.” Even when were not talking about it my mom will suddenly be like, “Look, I know a guy who embroiders t-shirts for fifty cents a shirt. You could have embroidered shirts!” But you know fuck it they’re not in a punk band, they don’t know what I’m doing.”
Embroidered T-shirts could actually be really cool.
My parents being in a punk band could actually be really cool.
-Interview with Jeff Rosenstock
"People tell us all the time we're gonna die from smoking, but you only live once."
-Julian Casablancas (The Strokes)
"Your girlfriend can leave you and your mother will yell at you, but when you start feeling like it's hurting the music, then it's a bad mistake."
-Julian Casablancas
"I love New York. The only thing is, when you're here, you constantly feel like you've got to get out. Human evolution didn't mean for people to be in a city like this all the time. You get so fucking aggressive. You want to fight all the time."
-Julian Casablancas
"All I can do is be me, whoever that is."
-Bob Dylan
In the past I've tried to say, 'Look, we are all crappy superheroes,' because personal computers and mobile phone devices are things that only Bat Man and Mr Fantastic would have owned back in the sixties. We've all got this immense power and we're still sat at home watching pornography and buying scratch cards. We're rubbish, even though we are as gods.
-Alan Moore
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
-c.s. lewis
Please don't go. We'll eat you up. We love you so.
-Where the Wild Things Are
Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night. Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world. Was Rorschach. Does that answer your questions, Doctor?
-Rorschach (Watchmen)
Laurie: Hey, you remember that guy? The one who pretended to be a supervillain so he could get beaten up?
Dan: Oh, You mean Captain Carnage. Ha ha ha! He was one for the books.
Laurie: You're telling me! I remember, I caught him coming out of this jeweller's. I didn't know what his racket was. I start hitting him and I think "Jeez! He's breathing funny! Does he have asthma?
Dan: Ha Ha Ha. He tried that with me, only I'd heard about him, so I just walked away. He follows me down the street… broad daylight, right? He's saying "PUNISH me!" I'm saying "No! Get lost!"
Laurie: Ha Ha Ha. What ever happened to him?
Dan: Well, he pulled it on Rorschach, and Rorschach dropped him down an elevator shaft.
Laurie: PHAAA HA HA HA! Oh, God, I'm sorry, that isn't funny, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
-Watchmen
"I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end."
" 'In the end'? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."
-Watchmen
Shhhh...My common sense is tingling
-Deadpool
"Hey what happened to Agent X--Oh.
...Oh.
You spelled out, 'Hi, Weasel' with his intestines."
"I knew you'd peek."
"That was kinda...nice, Wade."
-Deadpool
"Let her go."
"In a sec, I'm copping a feel."
-Deadpool
"Though he doesn't share their viewpoint, Captain America is considerate of the feelings of his vegetarian friends."
"Deadpool bounds up vegetarians and force-feeds them meatloaf."
-Deadpool
"What's the scam, hip cat? I thought I'd find you singin' with the squares!"
"What?"
"Hangin' with the hard cases."
"Excuse me?"
"Rappin' with the rubes."
"Are you having a seizure? Speak English."
-Deadpool
"You know pain is something man must endure in his heart, and since the heart feels pain so easily some believe life is pain. You are delicate like glass, especially your heart."
"I am?"
"Yes and worth earning my empathy."
"Empathy?"
"I'm saying I love you."
-NGE
"Are you gonna go away again?"
"You wanna come with me? You wanna throw away everything and come with me?"
"You mean it? Why are you being so nice?"
"Come on, Ta-kun. You're still just a kid, y'know?"
[breaks down crying and throws himself at her] "Where did you go? You left without saying anything..."
[she puts a hand on his head and looks away. voice over monologue by him:]"When you're in a town like this all covered in smoke, you forget there's a world outside. Nothing amazing happens here, and you get used to that. Used to a world where everything is ordinary. Every day we spend here is like a whole lifetime of dying slowly [...]"
-FLCL
"The flowers are singing. The flowers are always singing. But people never seem to notice."
-Wolf's Rain
You're Puss in Boots, the one who tricks the prince. He hides who he really is and pretends to be someone else forever. So in time he becomes that person, so his lie becomes the truth, see? He transcends the mask. Well, don't you get it? That's how he finds happiness. That's pretty good, right?
-FLCL
Speak Like a Child.
[on the video tape] "Good morning, me. Did you sleep well? Did you wake up feeling good? Did the light, and the wind, and the smell, and the sound, all seem like they're brand new and fresh this morning? Is each and every cell in your whole body awake and alive now? Today, you are who you are today. See? You're still me, but you're a newer version. Myself ten years from now. It's so far away; it's almost impossible to imagine. Am I alone or is there a wonderful person next to me? Knowing me I'm sure you're causing all kinds of trouble for lots of different people. I'm sorry, I don't mean to, but it's all right. That's part of life too isn't it? You're not perfect but you've got a lot to give, so remember: I'll always be cheering you on."
-Cowboy Bebop