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| Rain Man (1988) |
"Then he realized suddenly that Ramona had made herself into a sort of sexual professional (or priestess). He was used to dealing with vile amateurs lately. I didn't know that I could make out with a true sack artist.
But is that the secret goal of my vague pilgrimage?..."
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| "Swingers" The Wonder Years (1988 TV) |
"The square shapes were vivid, not inert, they gave him a sense of fateful motion, almost intimacy. Somehow he felt himself part of it all--in the rooms, in the stores, cellars--and at the same time he sensed the danger of these multiple excitements. But he'd be all right. He was overstimulated. He had to calm down these overstrained galloping nerves, put out this murky fire inside."
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| Pumpkin (2002) |
"Considering his entire life, he realized that he had mismanaged everything--everything. His life was, as the phrase goes, ruined. But since it had not been much to begin with, there was not much to grieve about. ...
... He went on taking stock, lying face down on the sofa. Was he a clever man or an idiot? Well, he could not at this time claim to be clever. He might once have had the makings of a clever character, but he had chosen to be dreamy instead, and the sharpies cleaned him out. What more?..."
"Concetta withdrew into her room; she felt no emotion whatsoever; she seemed to be living in a world known to her yet strange, which had already ceded all the impulses it could give her and now consisted only of pure forms. The portrait of her father was just a few square inches of canvas; the green cases were just a few square yards of wood. ... Still she could feel nothing; the inner emptiness was complete; but she did sense an unpleasant atmosphere emanating from the heap of fur. That was today's distress: even poor Bendicò was hinting at bitter memories. She rang the bell. 'Annetta,' she said, 'this dog has really become too moth-eaten and dusty. Take it out and throw it away.'
As the carcass was dragged off, the glass eyes stared at her with the humble reproach of things that are thrown away, that are being annulled. A few minutes later what remained of Bendicò was flung into a corner of the courtyard visited every day by the dustman. During the flight down from the window the form recomposed itself for an instant; in the air one could have seen dancing a quadruped with long whiskers, and its right foreleg seemed to be raised in imprecation. Then all found peace in a heap of livid dust."The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa
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| The Onion Field (1979) |
"This was one of those rooms (so numerous that one might be tempted to say it of all rooms) which have two faces, one with a mask they show to ignorant visitors, the other which is revealed only to those in the know, the owner in particular, to whom they are made manifest in all their squalid essence."
"... in the secret apartment but in the venerated one called the Apartment of Saint-Duke, where in the middle of the seventeenth century a Salina had withdrawn as if into a private monastery, there to do penance and prepare his own journey toward heaven. They were small low rooms, with floors of humble brick, whitewashed walls, like those of the poorest peasants. The last of these opened on to a balcony which overlooked the yellow expanse of estate after estate, all immersed in sad light. On one wall was a huge crucifix, more than life-sized; the head of the martyred God touched the ceiling, the bleeding feet grazed the floor; the wound in the ribs seemed like a mouth prevented by brutality from pronouncing the words of ultimate salvation. Next to the Divine Body there hung from a nail a lash with a short handle, from which dangled six strips of now-hardened leather ending in six lumps of lead as big as walnuts. This was the 'discipline' of the Saint-Duke. ... 'There,' said Tancredi, 'you're like that whip there, you're used for the same ends.'"
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| The Blues Brothers (1980) |
"The paradoxical result of all these separate but convergent[page break]
resolutions was that at dinner in the evening the pair most in love were the calmest, reposing on their illusory good intentions for next day..."
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Not Quite Human 2 (1989)"How can I make you believe that you can do something whenever you wanted to, anything you wished." "I'd have to be reprogrammed." "Come with me. ... Do you have a terminal?" |
"Then in order to become more human, I have to learn the expressions that don't exactly mean what they say... otherwise, I might spill the barf burgers."
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| "May the Giant Be with You," Twin Peaks (1990) |
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| Rain Man (1988) |
"...'Is Your Excellency coming to confession?' The Prince, whose sleep that night and conversations that morning had driven the episode of the previous night from his mind, looked amazed. 'Confession? It's not Saturday.'
Then he remembered and smiled. 'Really, Father, there wouldn't even be need, would there? You know it already.'
This insistence on his enforced complicity irritated the Jesuit. 'Excellency, the efficacy of confession consists not only in telling our sins but in being sorry for them. And until you do so and show me you do so, you will remain in mortal sin, whether I know what your sins are or not.' He blew a meticulous puff at a bit of fluff on his sleeve and plunged back into abstractions."
"And when she woke up? When she woke up she no longer knew who she was. Only later did she think with satisfaction: I am a typist and a virgin and I like coca-cola. Only then did she dress herself in herself, she spent the rest of her day obediently playing the role of being."The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector
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| The Escape Artist (1982) |
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| Barfly (1987) |
"'The way you are now, you're just slinking around corners and expiring in sentimental longings not truly worthy of a citizen, human being and above all a man."'
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| Maniac Cop (1988) |
"Still lying there in bed, he resolved to be more industrious from now on, to study something, a language for example, and in general to start living more regulated existence. He'd let so much slip though his fingers! Learning surely brought a person great pleasure. It was so lovely to engage in these heartfelt, vivid imaginings of how it would be to keep studying and studying assiduously, never once emerging from one's studies. He sensed a certain human maturity within him: And how much lovelier all this studying would be if approached with the sum of this already attained maturity. Yes, that's what he should do now: study, set himself tasks, and take pleasure in uniting both teacher and pupil within his own person."
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| Belly of an Architect (1987) |
"'Perhaps I'm expressing myself in an exaggerated way, and I'm also quite aware that all or most people to whom I might say these things would find them exaggerated. But my way of speaking accords with my view of life; surely it's out of the question I might speak some other way. I haven't yet learned to feign contentment, satisfaction or a sense of well-being I don't feel, and anyone who thinks I might learn is mistaken. I'm too weak to pretend and deceive... It's such a relief to be permitted to confess one's weakness after months of nerve-racking restraint, which have demanded more strength than I possess. Since I cannot possibly go on indefinitely performing duties that bring out the worst in me, I'm now looking for work that will appeal both to my pride and to my weakness. Shall I succeed in finding it? I truly cannot say, but one thing I do know for certain is that I must search until I've succeeded in convincing myself that happiness and duty can coincide. ...
... I cannot live and at the same time despise my life. I must find myself a life, and a new life, even if all of life consists only of an endless search for life.'"
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| Assassination (1987) |
"'...but what's the point of pondering this further? I have other things to think about. For example, I feel happy this morning--my limbs feel like fine flexible wires. When I feel my limbs, I am happy, and then I'm not thinking of any other person on earth, not a woman, not a man, I'm quite simply thinking nothing at all.'"
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| The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) "Leave me something to eat." |
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| The Pillow Book (1996) |
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| Belly of an Architect (1987) |
"but once again I imposed the false order that hides chaos, pretending that I was dedicated to a profound existence while all the time it was one that barely dipped its toe into the terrible waters. ...I describe and define and desire those rivers, but she swims in them. I look for them, find them, observe them from the bridge, but she swims in them. ...
... let the execution be quick, quickly back to the false order of being alone and recovering one's self-sufficiency, self-knowledge, self-awareness."
