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"Kilpatrick was murdered in a theater; the English police never apprehended the assassin. Historians claim that this does not tarnish the good name of the police, since it is possible that the police themselves had Kilpatrick murdered."
— Borges, "The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero," Eng. trans. Andrew Hurley
Gib: "Same thing happened to me with wife number two, 'member? I have no idea nothing's going on, right? I come home one day and the house is empty, and I mean completely empty. She even took the ice cube trays out of the freezer. What kind of a sick bitch takes the ice cube trays out of the freezer?"
True Lies
"Varenicline ["Chantix"] attenuated alcohol-related increases in subjective intoxication and alcohol-related decreases in executive cognitive function. At baseline, varenicline reduced alcohol craving and diastolic blood pressure, and increased associative learning, working memory, and perceptual motor function."
— Verplaetse, et al. (2016). Effect of Varenicline Combined with High-Dose Alcohol on Craving, Subjective Intoxication, Perceptual Motor Response, and Executive Cognitive Function in Adults with Alcohol Use Disorders: Preliminary Findings. Alcohol Clin Exp Res., 40(7): 1567–1576.
Helen Tasker: "Have you ever... killed anyone?"
Harry: "Yeah, but they were all bad."
True Lies
"Well, no, it's just something I didn't never care for. [speaking of Meade Lux Lewis's style of boogie playing on piano]."
— Mac Rebennack, in interview with Ben Sidran in Talking Jazz : An Oral History 1992. NY: Da Capo Press, 371.
Samir: "Is there anything you'd like to tell me before we start?"
Harry: "Yeah. I'm going to kill you pretty soon."
True Lies
“How could you want to marry a girl you’ve had sex with? My mother once told me, ‘Why eat garbage on your wedding night when you can eat steak?’"
-- Dan Akryod, quote from somewhere (in a movie/TV, pretty siure!)
Helen (watching her husband lay waste to a terrorist base camp): "I married Rambo!"
True Lies
"I think most musicians have in the back of their mind some guy that they always wanted to play with. And Horace is one of those guys, one of those bands that I always wanted to be in, in the fifties and sixties."
— Archie Shepp, in an interview with Ben Sidran, from Talking Jazz
Faisil (briefing his boss on a terrorist): "They call him the Sand Spider."
Spencer Trilby: "Why?"
Faisil: "Probably because it sounds scary."
True Lies
“Boomers think we’re slackers and Gen-Z thinks we’re Boomers. OK, Gen-X is an ode to the generation who grew up with indoor cigarette-smoking and only using a camera twice a year (“if you had a camera in the 90s, you were a photographer”). It’s a darkly funny remembrance of being a little girl who experienced sexism beginning at age four with the town flasher. Throughout my life men have continued to try to show me their dicks at inappropriate times, and society still thinks that’s not a big deal.”
some bit of recent Jen Kirkman comedy special (not on Netflix)
Gib: "You know what? I'm sick of being in the [surveillance] van. You guys are going to be in the van next time. I've been in the van for 15 years, Harry."
True Lies
"Czechoslovakian pencil manufacturer Koh I Noor claims that the pencil lead hardness scale was invented in 1802 by Franz Hardtmuth with H representing the family name, F represents his first name, and B after a town called Budějovice where they made the pencils."
*— a possibly spurious talk about the origin of the names of pencil lead hardness indicators (like...9H is very hard...almost unuseable IMHO, whereas 9-10-or-even-12 B are very soft and black indeed. No internal standard exists. I believe this quote came from Wikipedia or perhaps some pencil site. Apologies for the non attribution. "HB" is your standard "number 2" graphite and will do in a pinch in your 2mm lead holder, or your Mistubishi or Staedtler wooden pencil, BTW.
Not that I expect any of us will be taking any standardizing tests run through a Scantron anytime soon! (I use B or 2B by default when I use one of my lead holders for writing).
Harry (shown a stolen Russian nuclear weapon by a boastful terrorist leader): "I know what this is... this is an espresso machine.... No, no, wait. Is it a Sno-Cone maker?"
True Lies
"So it's a wider ranger of artists that we try and introduce people to today, so they all know about isn't Michael Jackson and Prince."
— Jackie McLean, in Talking Jazz
Harry (holding Simon at the sheer edge of an aquaduct): "Son of a bitch, did you think you can elude us forever, Carlos, huh?"
True Lies
"Someone flipped a half dollar. Eddie lost the toss and had to break."
— Tevis, The Hustler
Simon: "Oh, it's you! Hey, you still interested in that 'Vette at all?"
True Lies
"'— I'm already tops in humility,' Benny said.
The woman held out her hand. 'Nice to meet you.'"
— Tevis, Queen's Gambit
Simon (whining and pleading): "Oh, God, no, please don't kill me. I'm not a spy. I'm nothing. I'm navel lint! I have to lie to women to get laid, and I don't score much. I got a little dick, it's pathetic!"
True Lies
"The picture was of a sad-looking clown in a bright orange suit, holding a staff. Eddie looked at this carefully, not understanding what it meant, but liking it. The clown looked mean as a snake." — Tevis, *The Hustler*
Simon: "You're very good. You recognize my style. You're a natural at this."
True Lies
“No one ever went to jail for wrong notes.”
Toscanini, big wheel conductor of art music (maybe apocryphal, but sounds like him.)
Gib: "The guy's a fake, man. He's taking credit for our moves. Unbelievable!"
True Lies
"The cue ball hit the corner ball, jarred it loose, bounced off the two bottom rails and rolled back up the table. The two colored balls hit their cushions and returned to the triangle. It was a perfect break. A few people in the stands applauded. At least there were some who knew what was going on."
-- Tevis, The Color of Money
Simon: "Something came over me. I just had to nail this guy no matter what the risk. Pretty hairy. I thought he had me a couple of times. But I can't take credit... it's the training. It shapes you into a lethal instrument. You react in a microsecond without thinking."
True Lies
"He did not need help, or company, or sex. He needed to roll with the good feeling inside him; the feeling that came from winning money, and he needed to practice nine-ball."
The Color of Money (Tevis)
Gib (laughing): "I'm startin' to like this guy. (Harry gives him a mean look; Gib turns serious) We still gotta kill him. That's a given. You know."
True Lies
"In straights, if you were hot you kept right on going; in nine-ball you had to get over the hump of a break shot."
The Color of Money (Tevis)
Gib (as teenage Dana walks by, wearing a motorcycle helmet): "Yeah, I remember the first time I got shot out of a cannon."
True Lies
"At about the age of five, Edith was placed on the lap of the suffragist Susan B. Anthony."
-- Victoria Houseman, The Life and Loves of Edith Hamilton
Gib (over radio): "All right, Twinkle Toes, what's your exit strategy?"
Harry (also over radio, inside hostile territory): "I'm gonna walk right out of the front gate."
Gib (over radio): "Ballsy. Stupid but ballsy."
True Lies
"When a man's mother dies and he gets to thinking about her funeral and paying respects, before he knows it his mind ain't right. He's got rabbit in his blood and he runs."
— Cool Hand Luke
Simon (pretending to be a spy as he hits on a pretty girl at a party): "Here, let me pour you some more champagne. I gotta keep up the waiter bit, these stakeouts can be a little tricky, you know - you never know if things can explode to a life-or-death situation. Just stay low and I'll contact you later."
True Lies
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should."
**— dinosaur movie
Harry (over the radio, riding in the middle of a park): "Make it quick because my horse is getting tired."
Gib (also over the radio, surprised): "Your horse?"
True Lies
"Why then do we find these 'passions' in the souls of demons and not in the beasts?" — Augustine *Civitas Dei* VIII.17 Oh, H. Bettenson is the translator in English, and I don't have a copy of the Hippo Latin.)
Harry (loopy from the truth serum he's been given): "Ask me a question I would normally lie to."
Helen (panicky): "Are we gonna die?"
Harry: "Yep!"
Helen: "I'd say it's working."
True Lies
(LOL! Nice.)
"As you read, consider whether or not you can see the Satyrica as a type of comic response to the Aeneid."
Beth Severy-Hoven, The Satyrica of Petronius
Helicopter pilot (over the radio, conducting surveillance and speaking about Harry's wife): "Oh yeah, she's got her head in the guy's lap all right. Yahoo."
Gib (to Harry, trying to reassure him): "Maybe she's sleepy."
True Lies
You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free
— some song
Gib: "So your life's in the crapper. So your wife is banging a used-car salesman - it's humiliating, I know. But goddammit, Harry, take it like a man!"
True Lies
"I lost a mouthpiece one time. I’m crossing the street, McCarter Highway in Newark, a big highway. The case opens up and the mouthpiece rolled down into the sewer. You should have seen me, going to the store, trying to get a long stick, pushing the mouthpiece further away down the sewer. There was a restaurant on that corner where Dutch Schulz got it in the telephone booth. Lucky Luciano and those guys, boom! That mouthpiece is historic. A number 6 Meyer and it a good mouthpiece, too." — Interview of Wayne Shorter by E. Iverson. Ain't got no respect for company stooges. It's good or it isn't. No room for rats.
Harry: "Well, you see, this is the problem with terrorists. They're really inconsiderate when it comes to people's schedules."
True Lies
"But the Romans, as Scipion boasts in the discussion, On the Commonwealth, refused to allow character and reputation to be exposed to the calumnies and libels of poets and imposed the death penalty of on anyone who dared to composed verse of this kind."
— City of God trans. Bettenson, II.12
Harry (translating the terrorist boasting for Helen): "We're cool, we're badasses, blah, blah, blah."
True Lies
"Finally, the life of prayer alone, by supernaturally rectifying our faculties of desire, enables us to convert the truth into practice."
— Jacques and Raïssa MARITAIN, Prayer and Intelligence. Selected Essays.,
Helen Tasker (confessing on why she was tempted to go to Paris with a lover): "I wanted to do something outrageous, and it felt really good to be needed, and to be trusted. It's just there's so much I want to do with this life and it feels that I haven't done any of it. You know, the sand is running out of the hourglass, and I want to look back and say, see, I did that, that was me, I was reckless and I was wild, and I fucking did it."
True Lies
2x post ..... I don't know what that "2h" thing is in the middle....tried to fix but it's some kind of heterogeneous artifact
"And they...were filled with wrath (θυμός), and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him out headlong.
But he passing through the midst of them went his way."
— Luke 4.28-30 KJV
2h
“To stand in the midst of those plotting against him, and not be seized, betokened the loftiness of his divinity.”
— Chrysostom, tr. Newman, commentary on Luke 4:-30, from Aquinas's Catena Aurea edition of the book.
Yeah, it may look like two quotes....but I assure that's merely an illusion. So one's text, the other is brief commentary! So sue me!
Gib: "The guy is a goddamn used car salesman! I mean, this just keeps getting better and better!"
[Harry gives him a dirty look]
Gib: "I'm sorry, Harry, I know this has got to be painful. But you gotta admit, it's pretty damn funny. I mean, if it was just some idiot and not you, you'd be laughing your ass off."
True Lies
"I'm sorry, but I'll just bet you're hitting the ball too hard.
[...]
"Big-league baseball players use bats that weigh between 36 and 40 ounces, to try and drive a 5-ounce ball into the next county. Your cue weighs about half what a bat does, the balls weigh just about what a baseball does, and you only have to roll them — on felt — a few feet, frequently a few inches."
— George Fels, Mastering Pool (from the original 1977 edition, with the good photographs....gonna have to put some tape on the spine, starting to fall apart a bit).
Harry (talking through microphones and speakers): "The codename of your assignment will be... Boris. And your codename will be...."
Helen Tasker (hopeful): "Natasha?"
Harry: "No... Doris."
True Lies
"[Y]ou'll find that stacked balls react much better to being stroked smoothly to being stroked hard. That's because a smoothly stroked cue ball transmits more of its force to more of the balls, whereas whereas a cannonball passes its force primarily to the first ball it touches and the last ball in the row."
— Fels, Mastering Pool, 1977 edition with the good photographs.
Simon: "Okay, just ask yourself: What do women really want? You take these bored housewives, married to the same guy for years, they're stuck in a rut, then need some release! Promise of adventure, a hint of danger. I create that for them."
True Lies
"Thou shalt not approach to a woman having her flowers, neither shalt thou uncover her nakedness." — Leviticus, 18:9. (Douay-Rheims transl......I won't cite the Vulgate source, but it's more revealing in the Clementine Vulgate text). Of course, I disagree, but seemed an apt quote.
Gib (as Harry is commandeering a U.S. Marine Corps Harrier jet to rescue his daughter): "Harry, do you realize it has, in fact, been ten years since you've been behind the wheel of one of these things?"
Harry: "If I break it, they can take it outta my pay."
True Lies
The ruler saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. The man the word which Iesus said to him, and went his way."
— A Catholic Parallel New Testament Polyglot, Engl tr. Douay-Rheims.
Gib: "You know what? I say we concentrate on work, buddy. That's what I do every time my life turns to dogshit. I concentrate on work, and that gets me by. All right, buddy? This is gonna be great. You know what? We're gonna catch some terrorists, we're gonna beat the crap out of them, you're gonna feel a helluva lot better."
True Lies
"Mark Antony reconvened the senate on 17 March and the Senate adopted a resolution that granted amnesty to Caesar's assassins but at the same time ratified all that Caesar had granted, including the bounties that had been granted, or promised, to his veterans."
— John Ramsey, Introductory material written for the 2003 Cambridge Green and Gold prefatory material to Cicero, Philippics I and II. Remarkably prescient.
Faisil (as the van slips on ice) "Hey, watch it."
Gib (driving): "It's called ice, and it gets a little slick."
True Lies
"Sarah spoke to him from the chair in the living room. 'I've heard that pool can be a dirty game,' she said."
— Tevis, The Hustler
Gib: "Kids - ten seconds of joy, thirty years of misery."
True Lies
"'When shall I teach the fair Margot the learned tongue?' Udal asked again."
— Ford, The Fifth Queen
Harry (slamming Gib up against a car): "Stop cheering me up!"
True Lies
"The old man said vigorously, 'God saVe her highness, and send us her for Queen Have you begged her to get me redress in the matter of that wall?'"
— Ford *The Fifth Queen*
Simon (trying, clumsily, to seduce a married woman): "If not for me, Helen, do it for your country!"
True Lies
"She said submissively:
'Your lordship would have me become a spy upon the ladies who shall be my fellows?'"
— Ford, The Fifth Queen (trilogy, book I)
Harry (stunned): "Helen... Helen... is having an affair!"
Gib (hugs him): "Welcome to the club, man!"
True Lies
"Her voice was soft. 'That's right,' she said. She remained seated on the couch, upright, holding her drink in both hands protectively, as if holding a child or a child's doll. Her elbows were on her knees, her lips tightly together, and she was no longer looking at him."
— Tevis, The Hustler
Faisil (providing some context on how a spy mission went badly): "It's a scale, really, with a perfect mission at one end and a total pooch-screw at the other, and we're right about in the middle."
True Lies
"Bert seemed to take forever. Finally he came into the room, his face red. He poured himself a small drink, looked at Eddie, pursed his lips thoughtfully, and then went into the bathroom where he began washing his hands and face."
— Tevis, The Hustler
Harry (speaking to his borrowed police horse): "What the hell were you thinking? I had the guy, and you let him get away. Look at me when I talk to you. What kind of a cop are you, anyway?"
True Lies
" — I dunno, but it's weird and it's pissed off!
— Mac wants the flamethrower.
Burn it!
Dammit Childs, torch it!"
*— I don't think this one needs attribution among you all nerds!
Hmm. I actually don't recognize that quotation.
John Murdoch: "Daylight. When was the last time you remember seeing it? And I'm not talking about some distant, half-forgotten childhood memory, I mean like yesterday. Last week. Can you come up with a single memory? You can't, can you? You know something, I don't think the sun even... exists... in this place. 'Cause I've been up for hours, and hours, and hours, and the night never ends here."
Dark City
"I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!"
— movie
Dr. Schreber: "I call them the Strangers. They abducted us and brought us here. This city, everyone in it... is their experiment. They mix and match our memories as they see fit, trying to divine what makes us unique. One day, a man might be an inspector. The next, someone entirely different. When they want to study a murderer, for instance, they simply imprint one of their citizens with a new personality. Arrange a family for him, friends, an entire history... even a lost wallet. Then they observe the results. Will a man, given the history of a killer, continue in that vein? Or are we, in fact, more than the sum of our memories?"
Dark City
"You wanna get domed? OK. You and Gypsy Rose Lee."
— The Color of Money (movie, not book).
Insp. Frank Bumstead: "So, Husselbeck, what kind of killer do you think stops to save a dying fish?"
Dark City
"You know that I never wait until after I've looked at the rushes to begin the editing. I cut them as I'm looking at them. But I suffered agonies spending twelve hours a a day on the old machines."
— Orson Welles in conversation with Henry Jaglom in My Lunches with Orson. The so-called editor of this marvelous treasury is a piece of trash who has not ever had one redeemable thought, even in theory, therefore I took the liberty of using a Sharpie to blot out that stain from the front cover of this otherwise charming set of vignettes, if at times cobbled together in a haphazard way by some egomaniacal mere "writer."
https://i.ibb.co/NvJtH1d/picture-202...0-01-34-56.jpg
(Sorry about the size of the image: I don't feel like negotiating with Don Fanucci or his kind on this small a matter).
John Murdoch: "I know this is gonna sound crazy, but what if we never knew each other before now... and everything you remember, and everything that I'm supposed to remember, never really happened - someone just wants us to think it did?"
Emma Murdoch: "But how can that be true? I so vividly remember meeting you. I remember falling in love with you. I remember losing you. I love you, John. You can't fake something like that."
John (quietly): "No, you can't."
Dark City
"AUGUSTINE. (de. Con. iii. iv) He said not, if He could do it, but if it could be done; for whatever He wills is possible. We must therefore understand, if it be possible, as if it were."
— cit. in Aquinas, Catena aurea Mk. 14:32-42 (Engl. tr. auth. unkn.)
Emma Murdoch: "What brings you here?"
Mr. Hand: "I met my wife at this place."
Emma Murdoch: "It's where I first met my husband."
Mr. Hand: "Small world."
Dark City
“The coming Jubilee [2025] will thus be a Holy Year marked by the hope that does not fade, our hope in God. May it help us to recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations, and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God’s gift of creation.”
— Pope Francis, Spes Non Confundit 25
John Murdoch: "You know how I was supposed to feel. That person isn't me... never was. You wanted to know what it was about us that made us human. Well, you're not going to find it...[pointing at his head] in here. You were looking in the wrong place."
Dark City
"Then one day she comes home from yoga class. And the camera whirls to the door, and Patrice comes in. This is a flashback. I see that she is worried. 'What's wrong?' 'Nothing.' 'What's wrong?' 'Nothing.' 'Something is obviously wrong. You look upset.' I keep probing, which is what actually happened in real life."
*— My Lunches with Orson, Welles and Jaglom.
Dr. Schreber: "You are probably wondering why I keep appearing in your memories, John. It is because I have inserted myself into them."
Dark City
"Well...w'ell feed the French and kill the Germans."
— The Dirty Dozen (film)
Dr. Schreber (voiceover): "First... there was darkness. Then came the Strangers. They were a race as old as time itself. They had mastered the ultimate technology: the ability to alter physical reality by will alone. They called this ability 'Tuning.' But they were dying. Their civilization was in decline, and so they abandoned their world, seeking a cure for their own mortality. Their endless journey brought them to a small, blue world in the farthest corner of the galaxy. Our world. Here they thought they had finally found what they had been searching for."
Dark City
There once was a hermit named Dave
Who kept a dead whore in his cave.
"I know it's a sin,"
He said with a grin,
"But think of the money I save!"
— perhaps the most important limerick of all.
High praise indeed!
Dr. Schreber (mixing brain chemicals): "These do bring back memories. This one is still warm. What is it? The recollections of a great lover? A catalog of conquests? We will soon find out. You wouldn't appreciate that, would you, Mr. Whatever-your-name is? Not the sort of conquest you would ever understand. Let's see, a touch of unhappy childhood, a dash of teenage rebellion, and last but not least, a tragic death in the family."
Dark City
"1. Down to the road block, we've just begun 2. The guards are through 3. The Major's men are on a spree 4. Major and Wladislaw go through the door 5. Pinkley stays out in the drive 6. The Major gives the rope a fix 7. Wladislaw throws the hook to heaven 8. Jimenez has got a date 9. The other guys go up the line 10. Sawyer and Lever are in the pen 11. Posey guards points five and seven 12. Wladislaw and the Major go down to delve 13. Franko goes up without being seen 14. Zero-hour - Jimenez cuts the cable, Franko cuts the phone 15. Franko goes in where the others have been 16. We all come out like it's Halloween."
— The Dirty Dozen (shooting script)
John Murdoch: "Excuse me. How do I get to the end of the line?"
Train passenger: "You want the Express."
John Murdoch (after train blows by him): "Hey, how come that train didn't stop?"
Station Master: "That's the Express."
Dark City
"No, you're not going to hurt me, Posey. I'm going to hurt you."
— The Dirty Dozen
Mr. Wall: "Do not fret, Anna. I will give you some more pretty things soon."
Emma Murdoch: "I'm not Anna."
Mr. Wall: "You will be soon, yes."
Dark City
"Two mountain chains traverse the republic roughly from north to south, forming between them a number of valleys and plateaus."
— Lowry Volcano
Walenski: "I've been trying to remember things, clearly remember things, from my past, but the more I try to think back, the more it all starts to unravel. None of it seems real. It's like I've just been dreaming this life, and when I finally wake up, I'll be somebody else. Somebody totally different!"
Inspector Frank Bumstead: "You saw something, didn't you, Eddie? Something to do with the case."
Walenski: "There is no case! There never was! It's all just a big joke! It's a joke!"
Dark City
""Everything You Did" features the lyric: "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening." About the origin of the reference, Glenn Frey of the Eagles said: "Apparently, Walter Becker's girlfriend loved the Eagles, and she played them all the time. I think it drove him nuts. So, the story goes that they were having a fight one day and that was the genesis of the line.""
— anon., Wikipedia, Gaucho (album)
Mr. Hand: "...imagine a life alien to yours. In which your memories were not your own, but those shared by every other of your kind. Imagine the torment of such an existence... no experiences to call your own."
Emma Murdoch: "If it was all you knew, maybe it would be a comfort."
Mr. Hand: "But if you were to discover something different... something... better."
Dark City (Director's Cut)
"How come you don't eat?
— I like to starve myself: keeps the fear up."
— Cimino, The Deer Hunter
Mr. Hand (stepping on a newspaper clipping): "So it seems you discovered your unpleasant nature."
John Murdoch: "Who are you?"
Mr. Hand: "We might ask the same question, yes? Sleep... now."
Dark City
"Did you see that shot, Grady? That looked like a 3-year-old girl picking her nose. I can't believe it. This guy, you know, he couldn't get a h***-on if he had to."
— a commentary between Grady Matthews and Ken Taylor on a pool tournament.
Dr. Schreber: "When they first brought us here, they extracted what was in us and stored the information, remixed it like so much paint, and gave us back new memories of their choosing. But they still needed an artist to help them. I understood the human mind better than they ever could, so they allowed me to keep my skills as a scientist... because they needed them. They made me delete everything else. Can you imagine what it's like to erase your own past?"
Dark City
Luck is just a residue of skill.
— commentary on an Efren v Danny Smith one-pocket pool game....unknown name of commentator.
Dr. Schreber: "Remember John, never talk to Strangers!"
Dark City
“Honey, I never drive faster than I can see. Besides that, it’s all in the reflexes.”
— movie
Mr. Book (after Mr. Hand is imprinted with Murdoch's memories): "Is it done?"
Mr. Hand: "Oh yes, Mr. Book. I have John Murdoch in mind."
Dark City
“"You know what Andy Warhol’s sole contribution to this country has been?”" he asked. "“He made Campbell’s Soup a household word.”"
— John Waters, pretty sure
Mr. Book: "Shut it down! Shut it down forever!"
Dark City
"If I could tell you one thing, it’s this: A humble life is not a small one. Not everyone needs to dominate. Some of us are here to outlast. To endure. To watch. To teach. To take the shot when it feels right and walk away smiling, win or lose."
— Efren "The Magician" Reyes, arguably the greatest pocket billiards player, in interview.
Mr. Wall: "No more Mr. Quick. Mr. Quick, dead, yes."
Another Stranger: "Poor, poor Mr. Quick."
Dark City
"She's like a school in summer. No Class, and not a lot going on"
— anon.
Dr. Schreber: "There is no ocean, John. There is nothing beyond the city. The only place home exists... is in your head."
Dark City
"Tactile and kinesthetic images *— images of what you will feel, images of your body in motion — matter at least as much as visual images, perhaps more [sic]."
— Fancher [i]Pleasures of Small Motions. Mastering the Mental Game of Pocket Billiards[i].
John Murdoch: "I was just thinking, what you do seems kind of dangerous right now. I mean, how do you know I'm not the killer?"
May, a prostitute: "I don't. Why, you feeling any urges I should know about?"
Dark City
"It's a long time to stay on your feet, concentrating, walking around the table without taking a break. People often don't realize how great a part fatigue can play in a long game of pool. It's a physically, as well as mentally, stressful occupation."
— Willie Mosconi (arguably the GOAT 14.1 continuous specialist), with Stanley Cohen, Willie's Game
John Murdoch: "Hey, do you know the way to Shell Beach?"
Taxi Driver: "You're kidding! Me and the Mrs. spent our honeymoon there. All you gotta do is take Main Street West to... or is it the Cross... You know, that's funny, I can't remember if it's Main Street West or the Crosstown."
Dark City
"The strain of competing in a tournament or a challenge match could drain you dry, and it was the same no matter who my opponent was; my concentration was total. Someone could be doing a dance on another table, and if it was not in my line of sight I wouldn't notice."
— Mosconi, Willie's Game
Dr. Schreber: "You still don't understand, John. You were never a boy. Not in this place."
Dark City
"“How can you learn from watching bad players?” I asked him as I laughed.
“Because a lot of times,” he said, “the weak players make these impossible shots. They shoot even though they don’t have a chance to pocket the ball, but sometimes the ball goes in. I learned a lot of trick shots from watching bad players.”"
— Ted Lerner for The Atlantic, in an article about pool and billiards legend Efren Reyes.
Dr. Schreber: "Listen to me, John. You have their power. You can make things happen by will alone. They call it 'Tuning.' That is how they make the buildings change. Just now you acted out of self-defense, a reflex. But I can teach you to control your power consciously. Let me help you, John. Together, we can stop them. We can take the city back."
Dark City
“It ain’t no ballpark either. Look maybe your method of massage differs from mine, but touchin’ his lady’s feet, and stickin’ your tongue in her holyiest of holies, ain’t the same ballpark, ain’t the same league, ain’t even the same fuckin’ sport. Foot massages don’t mean shit.”
— Pulp Fiction
Mr. Wall: "Indulge us, Mr. Hand. If you were Murdoch... Yes?"
Mr. Hand: "If I were Murdoch... I would remember how my wife had hurt me by sleeping with another man. And then, I would look for a way to hurt her in return... Leave me alone with her. There is work to be done."
Dark City
"So Filipino Gene plays her some gin for fifty dollars a game. Now you can say what you want about Gene but he's a superior gin player, absolutely world-class. In pool he may be a shortstop these days, but in gin he's a champion."
— David McCumber, Playing off the rail : A pool hustler's journey.
Mr. Hand: "I have become the monster you were intended to be."
Dark City
The worldly hope men set their hearts upon
turns ashes - or it prospers; and anon,
Like snow upon the desert's dusty face,
Lighting a little hour or two - is gone.
- Omar Khayyam, excerpt from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
"About 99% of the calcium within the body and 90% of the phosphorous are deposited in bones and teeth. These minerals give bone its rigidity, and they account for approximately two thirds of the weight of bone."
— Schaum's Outlines: Human Anatomy and Physiology, Fourth Edition
"For example, the word inspiration has an odd meaning for its evolution. It began its existence as the Latin verb spirare, which means “to breathe.” By adding in- to the front, a new verb was derived that meant “to breathe in/into.” This was turned into the noun inspirationem, which came to us by way of French. It should mean “breathing in,” a generic noun, but it instead makes reference to an unseen deity literally breathing into a human being in order to give them ideas about stuff. That’s inspiration".
David J. Peterson, The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves to Sand Worms, the Words Behind World-Building
"No concrete evidence for either of these theories exists. Yet even though he [Bon Scott] died before AC/DC truly exploded into the rock band many recognize today, Bon Scott's status as an Australian icon remains secure."
— https://www.grunge.com/223473/the-tr...dcs-bon-scott/
"One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.
And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open. The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped, shattering, to melt. The doors flew open. The windows flew up. The children worked off their wool clothes. The housewives shed their bear disguises. The snow dissolved and showed last summer's ancient green lawns.
Rocket summer. The words passed among the people in the open, airing houses. Rocket summer. The warm desert air changing the frost patterns on the windows, erasing the art work. The skis and sleds suddenly useless. The snow, falling from the cold sky upon the town, turned to a hot rain before it touched the ground.
Rocket summer. People leaned from their dripping porches and watched the reddening sky.
The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and oven heat. The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts. The rocket made climates, and summer lay for a brief moment upon the land...."
Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
Excellent. I read that not long ago, in the unfortunately not-very-good graphic novel of Bradbury's masterpiece.
Ptl. Husselbeck: "Everything Det. Walenski committed to paper should be here."
Insp. Bumstead: "The only thing that should be committed is Wolenski."
Dark City
"I'm like Nolan fucking Ryan with these pool balls. I can hit somebody in the melon with one at ten feet. And there's sixteen of them on the table."
— "Bucktooth," quoted in David McCumber, Playing Off the Rail : A Pool Hustler's Journey.
Dr. Schreber: "It appears that John has suffered a psychotic break. Complete memory loss. He may be delusional. Even violent. Emma, if he were to contact you, and I suspect he will, you must call me immediately. Do you understand? It is imperative that I be the first one to reach him. Wherever your husband is, he is searching... for himself."
Dark City
McCumber to Tony: "Listen, you fucking hairy Italian. I'd appreciate it, myself, if you didn't leave long black hairs all over the sink and the shower. You know, you're just like a poodle. I swear, you're all hair. If you shaved all the hair off your body, you'd weigh sixty-five pounds."
Tony to McCumber: "At least I have hair on my head, you frog-faced, bald-domed, four-eyed fuckin [sic] nit.
— David McCumber, Playing Off the Rail : A Pool Hustler's Journey
Mr. Book: "He's becoming like us."
Mr. Wall: "So we must become like him."
Dark City
"So now, when I get dressed every day, I pretend I'm a model. Even in Baltimore."
— John Waters, Role Models (2010)
Walenski: "Used to be a cop, at least in this life I was. They steal people's memories every night they change the city, back-and-forth, back-and-forth... 'till nobody knows who they are anymore."
Dark City
"We finally located [a mobile home] we could afford — a mere shell of a mobile home that had been burned to a crisp in a fire. Excitedly I imagined that people had died in this very trailer."
— John Waters, Shock Value, speaking of finding sets for his movie Pink Flamingos
Walenski: "Once in a while someone wakes up while they're changing things; it's not supposed to happen, but it does. They'll come looking for you, Murdock, just like they've come looking for me. But that's okay. I've figured a way out."
Dark City
"So Filipino Gene plays her some gin for fifty dollars a game. Now you can say what you want about Gene but he's a superior gin player, absolutely world-class. In pool he may be a shortstop these days, but in gin he's a champion."
— David McCumber, Playing Off the Rail : A Pool Hustler's Journey
Lucius: "Honey?"
Honey: "What?"
Lucius: "Where's my super suit?"
The Incredibles
"Certains lundis de la toute fin novembre, ou du début de décembre, surtout lorsqu'on est célibataire. on a la sensation d'etre dans le couloir de la mort. Les vacances d'été sont depuis longtemps oubliées, la nouvelle année est encore loin ; la prxomité du néant est inhuabituelle."
— Houllebecq, Anéantir
That is a hell of a ballsy way to open a novel, IMHO.
Here's MS Bing's translation, which seems good to me:
No, I just started the novel, and have read nothing else by Houellebecq....the prose is a kind of a popcorn style, I suppose, and I have a bunch of other books to read, but it's kind of fun to have acquired a "beach novel" for cheap from the Zon and I enjoy this guy's kind of clumsy purple prose. I think it's pretty recent, so that'll broaden my perspective a bit from the ancients and the near-ancients. /* edit....no, I don't like the Bing translation that much....but it's close enough....it conveys that the narrator is unhappy or even disturbed and has that kind Truffaut-movie feeling to it. So, good enough. *>Quote:
Some Mondays in late November or early December, especially when you are single, feel like being on death row. Summer vacation has long been forgotten, the new year is still far away; the proximity of nothingness is unusual.
Hope you love it! I just finished Ian McEwan's new sf/future history/academic satire/literary mystery novel What We Can Know, and it's quite good.
Honey: "Don't you think about running off doing no derring-do! We've been planning this dinner for two months!"
Lucius: "The public is in danger!"
Honey: "My evening's in danger!"
The Incredibles
"'Divine Discontent gets all the smiles all the time,' complained Fortitude to Prudence. 'Golly, but it's good to be on dry land.'"
— Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies
Lucius: "You tell me where my suit is, woman! We are talking about the greater good!"
Honey: "'Greater good?' I am your wife! I'm the greatest good you are ever gonna get!"
The Incredibles
Nice.
"About fifty meters further on, an Aston Martin DB11 came on in to the visitor's parking lot; so, Fred had arrived. It was kind of odd, to have this geek [in English in the text] like Fred who should by rights have been driving a Tesla, and yet we had this old school faithfulness to the internal combustion engine. He sat there for a few minutes, solid minutes went by when he was revving his engine up with that V12. He finally got out, shut the door behind him."
— Houellebecq, Anéantir. I think somebody has translated that into English....I don't exactly know why or what for. Spoiler alert: Houellebecq is kind of a dick IRL....that's his whole reason he's now this airport-novel type person....might be his last novel before he keels over in front of his bride. Who knows. A series of disjunct statements of fact...I don't know why I recalled this passage, which is pretty early on in the novel...just that's the amount of political engagement one can get from MichelH...just a set of facts about some stupid car and some "geek" revving the 12C engine for kicks. Not something that would be out of place in a David Lynch movie.
"Hey, this guy give you any trouble?
Hey! Fuck you, man!"
— Midnight Run, film.
Dash: "We're dead! We're dead! We survived but we're dead!"
The Incredibles
"Did you ever have sex with an animal, Jack?" — some movie
Edna: "I didn't know the baby's powers so I covered the basics."
Helen: "Jack-Jack doesn't have any powers."
Edna: "No? Well, he'll look fabulous anyway."
The Incredibles
"Also etwas Schwächeres, denn alles, was über Werke gesagt wird, ist schwächer als die Werke."
(new little paperback just arrived of the Ingeborg Bachmann Frankurt talks....here's some computer translation to Engl: "So something weaker, because everything that is said about works is weaker than the works themselves."....I guess that's sort of right....not much of a translator myself...I find it difficult to switch between languages, and my German isn't that good anyway, although I can obviously read it fine....anyway, that's just preambulatory material while she's warming up the crowd).
— Bachmann, Frankfurter Vorlesungen : Probleme zeitgenössischer Dichtung
Edna: "I never look back, darling! It distracts from the now."
The Incredibles
"la pierre que je pourrais escalader tandis qu'oliver discuplte ses fautes, Roland sonnait au beffroi, les larmes du chagrin sillonnant se jeujoues."
— Philippe l'Auvergne, trans Joyce *Finnegans Wake*. [oh don't get pissy with me! it doesn't matter what language FW is in! It's in all the languages....well...some of them.]
Google Translate has that as: "The stone I could climb while Oliver confessed his sins, Roland rang the bell in the belfry, tears of sorrow streaming down his cheeks." Sound right to you?
My turn:
Edna: "Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, storm powers? Nice man, good with kids. November 15th of '58! All was well, another day saved, when... his cape snagged on a missile fin!"
The Incredibles
[Actually, yeah, that is what the French says...the "disculpe" is more Latin than English but it means the same thing....p.ex., "disculpe" in Spanish is like "excuuuuuuse me!" :) and I've never seen it in a Latin bit of writing, but makes sense.....and the rest is straight French with some creative orthography.]
"Ibn Jobar was right to be worried, since he just discovered, on the present roads of southern Lebanon, a reality heavy with consequences: even if the conception of justice of the Faranjs possessed certain aspects which one could call 'barbarous', such that Oussama emphasized, their society had the advantage of not being 'the granter of rights."
— Maalouf, *Les croisades vues par les Arabes* (1983), my translation.
Edna: "Metaman, express elevator! Dynaguy, snagged on takeoff! Splashdown, sucked into a vortex! [shouts] No capes!"
The Incredibles
"I'm sick to death of people saying we've made 11 albums that sounds exactly the same, In fact, we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same."
— Angus Young, possibly apocryphal statement about his band AC/DC.
Edna (on Jack-Jack's suit): "I cut it a little roomy for free movement. The fabric is comfortable for sensitive skin... and it can also withstand a temperature of over 1000 degrees. Completely bulletproof... and machine-washable, darling. That's a new feature."
The Incredibles
"We all who live in this strange beginning of the century have the duty — and, more than to the older generations, than the younger — to give this project salvage, and with wisdom with lucidity, but just as equally with passion et sometimes even with anger."
— Maalouf Le dérèglement du monde (2009), my translation (accurate but not polished and I refuse to use those robot machines to translate for me, damned kids with their hoverboards and flipflops and beach music and volleyballs...you could say "sauvetage" is "salvage" or just plain help or rescue, but I like the way I chose, viz., "salvage," which is fine).
Edna: "What are you talking about? You are Elastigirl! My God... pull yourself together! What will you do? Is this a question? You will show him you remember that he is Mr. Incredible, and you will remind him who you are. Well, you know where he is. Go, confront the problem. Fight! Win! And call me when you get back, darling. I enjoy our visits."
The Incredibles
"Well, why don't you choose, Martha? (Moves away from the phonograph . . . leaves it to MARTHA) Martha's going to run things . . . the little lady's going to lead the band."
Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, act two.
Syndrome: "Oh, ho ho! You sly dog! You got me monologuing! I can't believe it...."
The Incredibles
"In schmay october 1935 (in the night of us really beyond weird) there got a machine from the west, on the way to New York"
— first sentence of Kerouac's first emission of *On the Road*, written in his native Joual dialect....the English is my own approximation of what it reads like....it's really not incomprehensible, as written by Kerouac, but it is surprising to see it in print. It's less surprising to hear it, as spoken, but almost shocking to see it presented on the sacred page of the publisher as such, as though a great trust were to have been violated upon the opening
Bob: "Weren't you in the news? Some show in Prayge... Prague?"
Edna: "Milan, darling. Milan. Supermodels. Heh! Nothing super about them... spoiled, stupid little stick figures with poofy lips who think only about themselves. Feh! I used to design for gods!"
The Incredibles
"John, Thanks for choosing Craft Holsters—we’re glad to have you! Your holster is always made from premium materials, be it Italian leather, stitched with strong German threads, premium breathable Nylon or durable Kydex. We hope it feels as good to carry as it was to make. Got questions? We’re here for you—welcome to the family!"
— some crock of shit e-mail from this company I bought a custom holster from....it's a very good leather holster....but this cracks me up: "strong German threads"? Is that something the Krauts are especially known for? Well, it made me chuckle anyway. And my holster happened to have been made by Falco (not Galco, but not a ripoff company either...a legitimate higher-end company in its own right) and sold through Craft Holsters out of Slovakia.
Violet: "Normal? What do you know about normal? What does anyone in this family know about normal?"
The Incredibles
"Ever had sex with an animal, Jack?"
— you know what movie
Syndrome: "Oh, no. Elastigirl? You married Elastigirl? Ho, ho, ho... oh, and got biz-zay! It's a whole family of supers! Looks like I hit the jackpot! Oh, this is just too good!"
The Incredibles
"The olive tree was making fun of the fig tree, because it had leaves all the time, while the fig tree changed its leaves according to the seasons. But when the snow should come to fall, the olive tree was a little bit taken aback and its very beauty and essence was destroyed. When the snow didn't find anything on the plain fig tree, it fell to the ground and the tree was just fine."
— Æsop, one of his fables...sort of a translation of a translation. Perry number 413.
"May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid."
President George Washington to the Hebrew Congregations of Newport, R.I., Oct. 1790 (paraphrasing Micah 4:4)
"Now, director of this film, Mr. Rick Sloane, another question. I’ve been asked to put to you by the legions who have enjoyed your film, Hobgoblins: Did someone remove your brain and carefully replace it with rat droppings?
— Once again your insight is quite correct. I was home one night, before the filming of my hit film, Hobgoblins, when I received an unsolicited call suggesting I try their service, wherein they would replace my brain with rat droppings. It was a good deal so I said yes."
— an humorous bit of hallucinated commentary over the end credits of this movie *Hobgoblins.*
Syndrome (watching live news footage of the Omnidroid): "Huh? Huh? Oh, come on! You gotta admit, this is cool! Just like a movie: the robot will emerge dramatically, do some damage, throngs of screaming people. And just when all hope is lost? Syndrome will save the day! I'll be a bigger hero than you ever were."
The Incredibles
"'George, I really like doing things backward. Can we do differentiation backward?'
'Sure we can, Lenny. It's called integration.'"
*— Susskind in one of his amusing series on physics called The Theoretical Minimum.
Syndrome: "I'll give them heroics. I'll give them the most spectacular heroics anyone's ever seen! And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super... no one will be."
The Incredibles
"You go on, I presume, with your latin Exercises: and I wish to hear of your beginning upon Sallust who is one of the most polished and perfect of the Roman Historians, every Period of whom, and I had almost said every Syllable and every Letter is worth Studying.
In Company with Sallust, Cicero, Tacitus and Livy, you will learn Wisdom and Virtue. You will see them represented, with all the Charms which Language and Imagination can exhibit, and Vice and Folly painted in all their Deformity and Horror.
You will ever remember that all the End of study is to make you a good Man and a useful Citizen.—This will ever be the Sum total of the Advice of your affectionate Father"
— John Adams to JQA, letter, 18 May 1781
Syndrome: "It's finally ready! You know, I went through quite a few supers to make it worthy to fight you, but man, it wasn't good enough! After you trashed the last one, I had to make some major modifications. Sure, it was difficult, but you are worth it. I mean, after all... I am your biggest fan."
The Incredibles
"After they married in 1886, [Martha] Bernays would be nearly constantly pregnant for the next nine years, giving birth to six young Freuds. The lengthy love letters devolved into laundry lists."
— Rachel E. Gross, Vagina Obscura, ch. 1
Dash (bored, in an RV being towed by a suborbital rocket): "Are we there yet?"
Mr. Incredible (crossly): "We get there when we get there!"
The Incredibles
"Even without undue exaggeration the buttocks continue to provide one of the main erotic focuses of the modern female body."
— Desmond Morris, The Naked Woman
Elastigirl (handing her children masks): "Put these on. Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it. And if anything goes wrong, use your powers."
Violet: "But you said never to use...."
Elastigirl (snapping): "I know what I said! (sighs, pauses) Remember the bad guys on the shows you used to watch on Saturday mornings? Well, these guys aren't like those guys. They won't exercise restraint because you are children. They will kill you if they get the chance. Do not give them that chance."
The Incredibles
"The President hath power. The President has no legal power to enter into devious and secret agreements with foreign powers...To send the boys from Omaha to Singapore to die for British monopoly and brutality is not the act of an American patriot."
— Ezra Pound (post losing his marbles!), in a pro-fascist radio emission from Italy in 1942.
Old Man #1: "Ya see that? That's the way to do it. That's old school."
Old Man #2: "Yeah. No school like the old school."
Old Man #1: "Yeah!"
The Incredibles
"GEORGE
(Returning to the portable bar)
But the years have brought to Martha a sense of essentials...the knowledge that cream is for coffee, lime juice for pies, and alcohol (Brings MARTHA her drink[). [Sic...the";Berkley Press" apparently thinks that's how one should put to press some damned play....no punctuation control, apparently, for these people.] pure and simple."
— Albee, *Virginia Woolf*. Why don't you take a picture, because it'll last longer! Hehe! So funny I forgot to laugh!
Elastigirl: "Vi! You have to put a forcefield around the plane!"
Violet: "But you said we weren't supposed to use our powers!"
Elastigirl: "I know what I said! Listen to what I'm saying now!"
The Incredibles
"Although sexual excess, perversion. corruption, betrayal and despair [sic] figure prominently in Catullus' [sic] poetry, he remains emotionally sympathetic and morally earnest, more traditional than decadent in his beliefs [sic]."
— Garrison, Introduction reprinted in the fourth ed. of The Student's Catullus.