I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.
- Isaac Asimov.
It's easier not to write than to write. Except if you are a writer. Then you have no choice.
- Elie Wiesel.
A house without books is like a room without windows.
- Horace Mann.
A room without books is like a body without a soul.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero.
To make a difference in life is just I think the purpose of what life is.
- Anastacia.
Commit yourself to a dream....Nobody who tries to do something great but fails is a total failure. Why? Because he can always rest assured that he succeeded in life's most important battle, he defeated the fear of trying.
– Robert H. Schuller.
Little in this world unfolds as we predict.
- Ray McAnally, as Altamirano, in The Mission.
Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent.
- Milan Kundera.
Live every day as though it were going to be your last. One day, you're sure to be right.
- Edward Woodward, as Harry Morant, in Breaker Morant.
I have written a great many stories and I still don't know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances.
- John Steinbeck.
Literature is a profession where you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.
- Jules Renard.
Never judge a book by its cover.
- Edwin Rolfe.
Never judge a book by its movie.
- J.W. Eagan.
To be is to do.
- Socrate.To do is to be.
- Sartre.Do be do be do.
- Sinatra.
I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.
- Groucho Marx.
It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write.
- Sinclair Lewis.
Whatever you can do,
Or dream you can do,
Begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now.- Goethe.
Everyone is in favour of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.
- Winston Churchill.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your Life.
- Winston Churchill.
The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place, we are entering a period of consequences.
- Winston Churchill.
This morning is a gift. Every morning you have another chance. Sometimes you do nothing. Sometimes you get lucky and the day shines on you. But how often do you wake and seize that day with your own hands? Make that day your own.
- Bob Hoskins, as Darcy, in 24 7: TwentyFourSeven.
Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.
- Ben Kingsley, as Itzak Stern, in Schindler's list.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not men.
- Colossians 3: 23.
Never forget who you are, man. You do you die.
- Aaron Eckhart, as Nick, in Thursday.
Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life.
- Confucius.
Our greatest glory isn't in falling but rising when we fall.
- Confucius.
I get knocked down.
But I get up again.
You're never going to keep me down!- Tubthumping, by Chumbawumba.
What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know.
It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.- Mark Twain.
I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them.- John Wayne, as J. B. Books, in The Shootist.
What we do in life ... echoes in eternity!
- Russell Crowe, as Maximus Decimus Meridius, in Gladiator.
Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining!
- John Vernon, as Fletcher, in The Outlaw Josey Wales.
You’re never more alive than when you’re on the edge of death.
- Dennis Quaid, as Dexter Cornell, in D.O.A.
We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.
- Cynthia Ozick.
I'm still here, you bastards!
- Steve McQueen, as Henri Charriere, in Papillon.
The poet lays down his pen, the killer his axe and even you must learn to relax.
- Ian Bannen, as Iamskoy, in Gorky Park.
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
- Brad Pitt, as Tyler Durden, in Fight Club.
Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends.
- Edward Norton, as Monty Brogan, in 25th Hour.
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
– Jack London.
Life is a strange thing.
Just when you think you learned how to use it - it's gone!- Hello (Turn Your Radio On), by Shakespears Sister.
Do as little harm to others as you can; make any sacrifice for your true friends; be responsible for yourself and ask nothing of others; and grab all the fun you can. Don't give much thought to yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow, live in the moment, and trust that your existence has meaning even when the world seems to be all blind chance and chaos. When life lands a hammer blow in your face, do your best to respond to the hammer as if it had been a cream pie.
- Dean Koontz.
Don't take life too seriously. No one makes it out alive anyway.
- Frank Arduini.
If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs. And maybe your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery, isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance. Of how much you really want to do it. And you'll do it, despite rejection in the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods. And the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.
– Matt Dillon, as Henry Chinaski, in Factotum (2005).
I came up with a new game-show idea recently. It's called The Old Game. You got three old guys with loaded guns onstage. They look back at their lives, see who they were, what they accomplished, how close they came to realizing their dreams. The winner is the one who doesn't blow his brains out.
He gets a refrigerator.- Sam Rockwell, as Chuck Barris, in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.