“Good…bad…I’m the guy with the gun.”
As Dorothy once said about Lorelei, “she’s like a radio—nothing but junk comes out, and then just when you’re ready to throw it out the window, you hear something amazing.”
On the opening episode of the Anna Nicole Smith show last season, she slurred unhappily, “People always say, ‘Life’s a bitch an’ then ya die.’ They should say, ‘Life’s a bitch an’ then ya live.’”
A couple:
Big Trouble in Little China (paraphrase)
“Have you paid your dues, Jack?”
“Paid my dues? Ya, I’ve paid my dues, and the cheque is in the mail!”
Radiohead (Palo Alto, I think)
“I’m too busy to see you; you’re too busy to wait.”
Something I heard that Michael Moore said backstage after his, er, ‘speech’ (likely an urban legend, but it’s sweet)
“Mr. Moore, why did you just say what you did?”
“Because I’m an American.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s a lot.”
Forgot this exchange, from Raising Arizona:
Glen: “It’s a crazy world.”
H.I.: “Someone oughta sell tickets.”
Glen: “Sure, I’d buy one.”
Also:
[Evelle picks up a pack of balloons.]
Evelle: “Do these blow into funny shapes and all?”
Grocer: “Well, no, unless round is funny.”
I’m always hoping to say “I’d buy one,” or “not unless round is funny,” but they don’t work without the straight lines.
Best piece of wisdom from pop culture:
“Watch out where the huskies go, and don’t you eat that yellow snow.”
Words to live by, people. It just doesn’t get any more profound than THAT.
"TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST FILTER AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET-
“Why? Because FUCK HIM!”
-Will Hunting, describing why he’d always take the heavier beating from his step-dad, from Good Will Hunting.
“This, too, shall pass.”
-Some damn parable or something.
Shit! I didn’t hit submit yet! I hadn’t finished my Pratchett post! Lemme try that again:
“TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST FILTER AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET- Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU BEHAVE AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME . . . SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MIGHT BE JUDGED.”
-Death, describing why it is important to believe in Santa Claus, in Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather.
From a fortune cookie in some long-forgotten Chinese restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida when I was about four or five years old:
He who seeks will find.
Doesn’t say what he’ll find, just that he’ll find something. This still (25-ish years later) affects me as deep wisdom.
“Free your mind and the rest will follow.”
En Vogue
“Words are a motherfucker.”
Eminem
“Another Suitcase in Another Hall” from Evita by Tim Rice:
“You’ll get by; you always have before.”
Try arguing with that.
I find J. Michael Straszinski’s dialogue in *Babylon 5 to contain a lot of profundity, generally when he’s speaking through G’Kar.
It was years ago, and I’m ashamed to say I’ve forgotten the name of the book and the name of the author, but it was a pulp novel based on the ShadowRun role-playing game. The book starts with our hero being shot to pieces, all but killed, and wanted by the government. A stranger takes him in, keeps him from dying, and looks after him until he’s healed up. When he’s ready to leave, the hero tells this man there is no way he can pay him back for all he’s done. The stranger tells him, “Pay forward.” Do for others what I have done for you.
This was over a decade ago, but it lingers. There are people in my life who’s kindness I can never repay. That silly little pulp novel showed me a new way to look at it. I can’t pay them back, but I can pay others forward. Among other things, I’ve told a friend of mine who writes pulp military and science fiction this story to remind him he does make a difference.
CJ
Another fortune cookie:
“You can’t kill time without injuring eternity.”
Sinead covered Nirvana? I was unaware of that.
Probably doesn’t count because it’s not a quote… the other night they re-ran the episode of Cowboy Bebop in which Spike and Jet go searching for a VCR to play the mysterious tape that was sent to Faye. Most of the episode is played for laughs until they show what’s on the tape, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
It’s Faye as a child, making a tape for herself in the future (not knowing that it’d be over a hundred years in the future). She does a cheer saying, “Believe in yourself! Don’t forget me! I’ll always be there rooting for you! Don’t forget me!” And the adult Faye just stares at the tape, finally saying, “I don’t remember.”
“Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other road, no other way, no day but today.” - RENT
Paraphrasing Dean Moriarty in “On The Road”:
Nothing scares people more than what they want.
The last line in “Little Big Man”:
Sometimes, the magic doesn’t work.
They Might Be Giants, “Everything Right is Wrong Again”:
Draw the line dividing laugh and scream.
Eric Idle in “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life”, “The Galaxy Song”:
Remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure, how amazingly unlikely is your birth. And, pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'cuz there’s bugger all down here on Earth.
Stevie Wonder, “Heaven Help Us All”:
Heaven help the boy who won’t reach 21.
Heaven help the man who gave that boy a gun.
Tom Waits, “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”:
How in the hell did I get here so soon?
She covers All Apologies on Universal Mother
I should have known that. I heard the album, but don’t own it. Guess it got overshadowed by “Famine”(? the one that’s spoken word, mentions that the US can’t kill more than 10% of a native population…)
From a Beavis and Butt-Head episode:
Beavis: Hey Butt-Head, why is Tom Petty always on TV?
Butt-Head: Because he’s famous, Beavis.
Beavis: Yeah (heh-heh), but why is he famous?
Butt-Head: Because he’s on TV, dumbass!