Piece by piece I seem to re-enter the world: I first began... a small, fixed dot, still see that old myself, a dark-blue thumbtack pushed into the scene, a hard little head protruding from the pointillist's buzz and bloom.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The first man, who after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, this is mine, and found people simple enough t...o believe him, was the real founder of civil society.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided; but the men: divided into mere segments of men--broken into small fragments... and crumbs of life, so that all the little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin, or a nail, but exhausts itself in making the point of a pin or the head of a nail.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Every actor and musician has a text upon which to base his art, but he can treat the text in one of two ways. The difference lies ...in how much the performer believes his own work can be "notated." In music, this means asking how far the system of musical signs printed on the page can actually represent the music the composer heard in his head. If you believe these signs--the notes, the loud and soft markings, tempo indications--are an adequate language, then in performing the piece you concentrate on realizing in sound what you, the performer, read. If you believe music cannot be adequately notated, then your task in the performance is to find what is missing from the printed page. The actor has a similar choice. He can treat the text either as a set of suggestions for a character in Shakespeare's or Ibsen's mind, suggestions which cannot be ignored, but leave him much freedom, or he can treat the text as bible which, once understood, will tell him how to act.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The inside of an Englishman's head can be very fairly compared to a Murray's Guide: a great many facts, but few ideas; a great dea...l of exact and useful information, statistics, figures, reliable and detailed maps, short and dry historical notes, useful and moral tips by way of preface, no all-inclusive vision, and no relish of good writing. It is a collection of good, reliable documents, a convenient body of memoranda to get a man through his journey without help. A Frenchman requires an agreeable shapeliness in every piece of writing and every article about him. The Englishman can be satisfied with utility. A Frenchman enjoys ideas as such and for their own sake; an Englishman regards them as instruments of foresight or mnemonics.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
And if the stage-dark head rehearse The fifth act of the closing night,... Why, cut it off, piece after piece, And throw the tough cortex away....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue.... Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I've kinda lo...st track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off--you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Chance: That tune, they been playin' it all day. What is it? Dude: Oh, it's some Mexican piece. I heard it farther south....<...br />Colorado: Well, they call it "The Deguello," the cutthroat song. The Mexicans played it for those Texas boys when they had them bottled up in the Alamo. Played it day and night 'til it was all over. Now do you know what he means by it? Chance: No quarter, no mercy for the loser.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »