It resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated, often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing ...anyone who comes between them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; and... it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have always suspected that too much knowledge is a dangerous thing. It is a boon to people who don't have deep feelings; their p...leasure comes from what they know about things, and their pride from showing off what they know. But this only emphasizes the difference between the artist and the scholar.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is one of those distinctions which is obvious, without being sharp or clear. It is obvious, and remains obvious, to every norma...l mind, although when we come to analyze it, we may not be able to rule a boundary line. It remains obvious, as the distinction between day and night remains obvious, though, when we begin to analyze that distinction, we come up against such refinements as dusk and twilight. There is more than one way of characterizing the difference. Perception is essentially a passive experience, something that happens to us; thinking is an active one, something that we do. Or if you don't like this distinction, because of refinements such as the "intentionality" which some have detected (rightly, I would say) in perception, or on the other hand because of the passivity of that uncontrolled type of thinking called "reverie," then thoughts are something that comes from within; perceptions something that comes from without.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My dear Mrs. Reed, sometimes in my profession there comes a contest of wills between the doctor and his patient. The patients are ...clever. Oh, very clever. And they can fool the doctor. Sometimes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Run fast, stand still. This, the lesson from lizards. For all writers. Observe almost any survival creature, you see the same. Jum...p, run, freeze. In the ability to flick like an eyelash, crack like a whip, vanish like steam, here this instant, gone the next--life teems the earth. And when that life is not rushing to escape, it is playing statues to do the same. See the hummingbird, there, not there. As thought arises and blinks off, so this thing of summer vapor; the clearing of a cosmic throat, the fall of a leaf. And where it was--a whisper. What can we writers learn from lizards, lift from birds? In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth which is the only style worth deadfalling or tiger-trapping. In between the scurries and flights, what? Be a chameleon, ink- blend, chromosome change with the landscape. Be a pet rock, lie with the dust, rest in the rainwater in the filled barrel by the drainspout outside your grandparents' window long ago.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The close-up has no equivalent in a narrative fashioned of words. Literature is totally lacking in any working method to enable it... to isolate a single vastly enlarged detail in which one face comes forward to underline a state of mind or stress the importance of a single detail in comparison with the rest. As a narrative device, the ability to vary the distance between the camera and the object may be a small thing indeed, but it makes for a notable difference between cinema and oral or written narrative, in which the distance between language and image is always the same.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There's always a period of curious fear between the first sweet-smelling breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Did you ever hear the story about the fighter that was losing badly to the other guy? He's getting the hell kicked out of him and ...he comes back to his corner between rounds and his manager says, "Keep up the good work, kid, because the other guy isn't laying a glove on you." And the fighter says, "Then you'd better keep your eye on the referee because somebody is kicking the shit out of me."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What comes over a man, is it soul or mind That to no limits and bounds he can stay confined?... You would say his ambition was to extend the reach Clear to the Arctic of every living kind. Why is his nature forever so hard to teach That though there is no fixed line between wrong and right, There are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »