In a book. In a movie. Even on television. Sometimes there are single lines, just utterances, that grab you and affect you in some way, be it anger, joy, or intense emotion that defies a single label or name. A cord is struck and you resound. What is that line(s) for you? For me, it is in the final LotR film based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book, The Return of the King, where Gandolf takes up Pippin Took onto the back of Shadowfax and says: "Run Shadowfax. Show us the meaning of haste." That line always grabs me. EDIT ~ A kind friend here at the forum has just reminded me about an important issue with threads such as this one. You must credit the source material else this thread will not be long for this world.
I have always said that the line from the book, Silent Witness by Richard North Patterson, always fills me with so much emotion. Sue Robb turns to Tony Lord and says... "Wouldn't it be pretty to think so?" Everytime I read that line, I just feel romantic and bittersweet. I love that feeling.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. - Roy Batty. From Blade Runner. Partly because the things/locations mentioned aren't really explained, I suppose, it just really stirs my imagination. Also, from C.S. Lewis's wonderul book Perelandra: Mythology is simply gleams of celestial strength and beauty falling on a jungle of filth and imbecility. That was my sig for a long time.
There's a line in one of the books of the Ender series that gives me chills every time I read it, but I would have to look it up, so I'll save that one for later. For now, here's one. In the Fellowship of the Rings, toward the end, when Frodo offers Aragorn the ring and he refuses, the part where Aragorn says "I would have gone with you to the end...to the very fires of Mordor," it makes me tingle just thinking about it.
The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see it path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Hmmmm. I have a couple. The first is from Commander Adama's speech in the BSG miniseries. "You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you've created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can't hide from the things that you've done anymore." (Refering to the Cylon Rebellion and War) Eddie James Olmos does the speech fantastically. The next is from the third LotR film. "Arise! Arise, riders of Théoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered - a sword day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride! Ride to ruin, and the world's ending! Forth Éorlingas!" King Theoden, marshalling his army on the edge of the Pelennor Fields. Simply brilliant. And the last is the closing line from Stephen King's The Green Mile: "We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long."
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as Timothy Price notices the words a bus pulls up, the advertisement for Les Miserables on its side blocking his view, but Price who is with Pierce & Pierce and twenty-six doesn't seem to care because he tells the driver he will give him five dollars to turn up the radio, "Be My Baby" on WYNN, and the driver, black, not American, does so. Opening line of the book that changed the way I think about writing and literature....American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis...best book of the past 25 years....
You must credit your source A kind friend here at the forum has just reminded me about an important issue with threads such as this one. You must credit the source material else this thread will not be long for this world.
Actually, in the book I'm reading at the moment. The house that Jack built - Graham Masterton the line that got me and has stuck with me, mostly because it made me cringe like I have never cringed before is: The flesh was flattened, almost as thin as a veal patty, and the hammerhead punched a semi-circular hole right through the skin of his scrotum. One of the most memorable lines I have ever read in a story.
My absolute favorite lines from the Lord of the Rings, Two Towers: Sam: I wonder if we'll ever be put into songs or tales. Frodo: [turns around] What? Sam: I wonder if people will ever say, 'Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring.' And they'll say 'Yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, Dad?' 'Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits. And that's saying a lot.' Frodo: [continue walking] You've left out one of the chief characters - Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam. [stops and turns to Sam] Frodo: Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam. Sam: Now Mr. Frodo, you shouldn't make fun; I was being serious. Frodo: So was I. I wish I could find the quote from the book... I cried when I read that one. The movie quote is still touching, but not like the book one is.
That part makes me cry, too. In the book and the movie. But it's not hard to make me cry...so I guess that's not saying much.
Doesn't take much to make me cry, either. In the Patriot, where the father tries to hug his daughter, but she refuses... that always makes me cry. But then, when she runs after him yelling Papa... I REALLY cry. That was months ago at the beginning of the school year, and I still get made fun of.
From Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights: If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger. And also, a line from the movie "Murder at 1600." The man who played the president was talking about the girl who was murdered in the washroom and when he was told she was only 25, he was like "she was just a child!", that hit me hard. I'm not sure why, but it does still really stick with me.
"Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." From Elie Wiesel's Night, one of my favorite books.
The most memorable lines (to me) from films will probably have little to no impact out of context, none the less a couple of them are: "You're so honest." I actually can't recall the name of the character who says that, but she was played by Maggie Cheung in Wong Kar Wai's Ashes of Time. "Yes, I know this man." Spoken by Isabelle in Hal Hartley's Amateur. As for books, the two that I can immediately recall (or find easily). "If words had souls, the whole sky would be dancing by now, whirling with little stars like a cloud of mayflies. Each little star would be transparent and able to cry out." From Zhang Xian Liang's Getting Used to Dying. "For without you, Aymara, even among miracles I am forlorn." From Lucius Shepard's Aymara.
There are so many! But a properly placed short sentence. For some reason, something like: Then it happened. Really grabs me (that was a little cliche, but its a general point ). It makes you pause, it adds a certain stress into that paragraph or page. Of course, you can't have an entire story of nothing but three-word sentences, but a properly placed short sentence, with proper period placement is critical in a writer's need to add stress to a certain part of the story. Just a personal thought. EIE
Quoted for being the most truthful statement I have heard in a long, long time. That line struck me very hard when I read that book. Isn't it funny what deep feelings can be conveyed by such simple words?
Exterminate, exterminate... I rewatched an episode of Doctor Who. The Stolen Earth. In the episode Daleks have taken 20 something planets out of space and time. When they first learn who is responsible I was scared. Though it guess it wasn't the line itself, but the reaction from the companions of the Doctor.
One of my favorite lines or group of lines from a movie, You've Got Mail Nora Ephron - Director Writers (WGA):Miklós László (play) Nora Ephron (screenplay
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights Catherine's affirmation, " I am Heathcliff " It's simple, but resonate of how, when we're in love, we nearly feel as if we've become the other person. Rather profound expression in so little words.
"Parsons was Winston's fellow employee at the Ministry of Truth. He was a fattish but active man of paralyzing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms--one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the thought police, the stability of the Party depended." George Orwell, 1984 I love the "mass of imbecile enthusiasms"--it kind of sums up my present feelings toward the workshops being inflicted on me and other teachers at the university where I work, by the so-called 'teacher training unit'.
