Sometimes I read some really brilliant lines (or hear them on radio, TV, or film), and I wonder how someone came up with that. I've just heard one on Doctor Who. "People talk about premonition as if it's something strange. It's not. It's just remembering in the wrong direction." IMHO that's brilliant. Has anyone else got any favourite lines, or lines they are really impressed with?
I've been watching The Blacklist, and I have found on several occasions that there has been a cat and mouse discussion between Reddington and his quarry. The script often subverts the anticipated profound retort with a gunshot. That is my favourite type of line- no pretentiousness or show-boating from the writers- just a swift and decisive response.
"What is the most cowardly and shameful thing in human conduct? It's when people with power, and those who flatter them, hide in safe places and extol war — who force patriotism and self-sacrifice on others, sending them to the battlefield to die." For those who like to share a drink: "Humans were drinking alcohol five-thousand years ago, and we're still drinking it now. Alcohol is humanity's friend. Can I abandon a friend?" LOGH - Yang Wenli.
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch-Hicker's Guide to the Galaxy. There are a lot of great line in THHGTTG, IMHO.
From "Casablanca": Police officer: Captain, another visa problem has come up. Capt. Renault: Show her in.
I was going to reply to this thread with a line from one of the Viriconium novels (I think it's in the beginning of The Pastel City), something to the effect of "All recluses think they know themselves better than they actually do." But, now I can't find it. Maybe I just made it up, but I swear that's where I read it.
[his] father the history professor had always maintained the key to understanding our culture lay in the names of Shiloh and Antietam. It was only in their aftermath that we discovered how many of our own countrymen - who spoke the same language and practiced the same religion and lived on the same carpet-like, green, undulating, limestone-ridged farmland - we would willingly kill in support of causes that were not only indefensible but had little to do with our lives. James Lee Burke - Rain Gods
"Just because two people are willing to die for each other doesn't mean that they know how to live with each other"
On the matter of love: Alchemist Boy: "I'll give you half of my life, so give me half of yours!" Mechanic Girl: "Argh... why are you alchemists like this... You want half? I'll give you all of it and I don't care how much I get." One of the final scene of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, a Japanese animation\manga series. Basically by the alchemist law of equivalent exchange says that in order to create something, another thing of equivalent value must be offered, hence the alchemist's way of thinking.
You just take an idea and chisel away at it. It doesn't have to be an earth-shattering idea, but if you distil it down to the right words it usually sounds pretty good. Of course, you need to have the ideas in the first place, but writing is all about ideas, if you ask me.
I reckon this could work the other way too: you can turn a simple, profound idea, if it is rich enough, into an entire book. Say, for instance, one day you jotted down in your journal: "People are blind to uncertainty". With a bit of scholarship and added water you could develop that idea into a whole book (except in this case Taleb has already done it with The Black Swan).
“In racing, they say that your car goes where your eyes go. The driver who cannot tear his eyes away from the wall as he spins out of control will meet that wall; the driver who looks down the track as he feels his tires break free will regain control of his vehicle.” “The car goes where the eyes go.” Garth Stein, "The art of racing in the rain"
"There is no limit to us, we have the power of love." One Piece, second opening intro, English dub. It sure is cliche, but it sure is true. Love is often associated with a merging into infinity or eternity. The context of this line, though, has to do with friendship - true friendship. One Piece has a way of taking a cliche and flipping it upside down, this is one of them.
"Do you to build a snowman? It doesn't have to be a snowman..." Do I really need to? Fine - Frozen, Disney. I haven't watched Frozen honestly, but I had a chance of hearing that line and it conquered me. It is an instance of veiled honesty. It's a child telling her sister "It's not the snowman I want - it's you..." and I find it deeply touching and literary. Funny how an unintentional nuance gets you like that
"How gratifying for once to know That those above will serve those down below!" "Because in all of the whole human race Mrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two There's the one staying put in his proper place And the one with his foot in the other one's face Look at me, Mrs Lovett, look at you. No, we all deserve to die Even you, Mrs Lovett, even I!" - Sweeney Todd I don't think I have to say much about these lines. I love that movie, and everything has this gruesome, darkly comical, deep sadness to it that rings true.
From a cartoon by William Hamilton, quoted in "What If: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers" by Bernays and Painter. "Frances, can I get back to you? Gordon ran away with the babysitter and I'm trying to see if there's a short story in it."
Does this happen to anyone else. You know, you are writing and you finish a line and, in just a dozen words, it expresses so much about you that it is strange, as if you were pouring your innermost feelings and it makes you uncomfortable because you feel that if anyone reads it they will know to much about you? A moment of perfect honesty only you know about in a single sentence. I think that sometimes makes writing scary.
I think pain calls to pain. If you're writing about something very painful to yourself, the readers who will best understand it will be those who have similar trauma and can relate to where you're coming from. The same probably goes for dreams and ideals, though I don't have as much experience with them.
To me, 'innermost feelings' is too vague; it doesn't quite encapsulate what's given over, especially if you write and cover a lot of emotional ground with your 'fiction'. Yes, to go deep (as someone here coined) you're surrendering the workings of your mind, your thought trains, your opinions, your biases, your insecurities, your prejudices, your sexual preferences... Of course all these come out dressed as the characters you create and their behaviour mightn't be yours—but readers are quite canny at picking the persona of the writer out of these clothes. You're putting yourself up for judgement by family, friend, acquaintance and stranger alike. I've had it from the mouth of a well respected author that 'it ain't no casual undertaking' — and I agree.
