"... my nemminy there nemminy."

"I wunnert how I ever cudve fealt real up to then. How I ever cudve fealt a live before I begun to take things in like I wer now. I wantit to move I wantit to happen with what ever were happening roun me." 

Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban

8 uv penkuls

"Woan yu pleas tel me how menne Chaynjis thayr ar? The Littl Man sed, As menne as reqwyrd. Eusa sed, Reqwyrd by wut? The Little Man sed, Reqwyrd by the idea uv yu. Eusa sed, Wut is the idear uv me? The Little Man sed, That we doan no til yuv gon thru aul yur Chaynjis."

Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban

"'You bes start putting things to gether for your self you aint a kid no mor.'"

Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban

"You've declared your contempt for the world-- go get 'em, sport!"

Crow. T. Robot, MST3K, "Parts: The Clonus Horror" (Season 8, Ep. 11)

the happy few

600 pages!
one-quarter unread, dissolved
in the spin cycle.

Laundered, Stendhal's pulp
washed into 5-dozen pairs
of white cotton briefs.

Fibers in fibers:
what falls off is a flurry
swept off hardwood floors.

The Element of a Crime (1984)

Soapdish (1991)

"You want to know what's crazy: people waiting for one big sign to push them into doing something they ought to be doing in the first place. ...What were we waiting for? We could have been better people all on our own. But whatever. If you want to wait for a magic sign to be happy, then good luck to you, lady. I'm walking out now to help my possibly-dying brother. You can shoot me in the back of the head if you want."

Earl Hickey, "Made a Lady Think I was God," My Name is Earl (2006)

27. First Experience of Life (Barfly, 1987)

"...the first check inflicted on the dream that had been sweeping Julien away."

"'My God! To be happy, to be loved, is that all there is to it?' Such was Julien's first thought when he got back to his room. He was in that state of amazement and deep uneasiness into which a soul descends when it gets what it has desired for a long time. Such a soul, in the habit of desiring, now finds no more desire but has as yet no memories. Like a soldier coming off parade, Julien was studiously occupied in reviewing all the details of his conduct. 

'Did I let myself down in any way? Have I played may part well?' 

What part? That of a man who is accustomed to shine in front of women."

The Red and the Black, Stendhal (M-H B)

"September morn' dips a dainty toe into a Broadway billboard, and unshivering-gazes down upon a street that only yesterday was choked with summer. 

But the refuse is there, where the summer has passed and left pieces of itself: in the scratch and warp of summertime blues still screeching out of the loud speakers; the sunny mannequins, wax slightly melted, waiting in shop windows to be replaced by the fall and winter models; the faint odors of the sun-warmed perfume, th' souvenir of the golden girl who walked right past you, turned the corner, vanished into a place where summer never dies.  

A place not open to you, kid. Only autumns ahead of you, kid. Start using it; it's already given you two murders: a woman in the front seat of a car, a man scooped out of the earth from the teeth of a steam shovel. What more can you ask? September's showering her gifts on you, kid, take them! they're all yours!"

Detective Danny Clover, "The Anna Compton Murder Case," Broadway is My Beat (1951)

"Like Hercules he found himself placed, not between vice and virtue, but between the mediocrity consequent on assured well-being and all the heroic dreams of his youth. So I lack true resolution, he said to himself. This was the suspicion which gave him most pain. I'm not the wood out of which great men are fashioned, since I'm afraid that eight years spent earning my bread will rob me of the sublime energy required to do extraordinary things."

The Red and the Black, Stendhal (M-H B)