Poetry is essentially the antithesis of Metaphysics: Metaphysics purge the mind of the senses and cultivate the disembodiment of the spiritual; Poetry is all passion and feeling and animates the inanimate; Metaphysics are most perfect when most concerned with universals; Poetry, when most concerned with particulars. Poets are the sense, philosophers the intelligence of humanity. Considering the Scholastics' axiom: "niente è nell'intelletto che prima non sia nel senso [nothing is in the intellect that is not first in the sense]," it follows that poetry is a prime condition of philosophy and civilization.
-- Samuel Beckett, "Dante . . . Bruno . . . Vico . . . Joyce"
Must be tough being a spy. Nobody can tell whether you're talking code, making innuendo, or just straight shooting the shit, especially when it's this bad:
Bond: Magnificent view.
Jinx: It is, isn't it? Too bad it's lost on everybody else.
Bond: Mojito? You should try it.
Jinx: Giacinta Johnson. My friends call me Jinx.
Bond: My friends call me James Bond. Jinx, you say?
Jinx: Born on Friday the 13th.
Bond: Do you believe in bad luck?
Jinx: Let's just say, my relationships don't seem to last.
Bond: I know the feeling. (Looking at table of baddies.) The predators usually appear at sunset.
Jinx: And why is that?
Bond: It's when their prey comes out to drink. Too strong for you?
Jinx: I could learn to like it. If I had the time.
Bond: How much time have you got?
Jinx: Until dawn. What about you?
Bond: Oh, I'm just here for the birds.
Jinx: Hmm.
Bond: Ornithologist.
Jinx: Ah. Ornithologist, huh? (Looking down.) Wow. Now there's a mouthful. So you're gonna be busy tonight with the owls then?
Bond: No owls in Los Organos. Nothing to see till the morning. Not out there anyway.
Jinx: So what do predators do when the sun goes down?
Bond: They feast. Like there's no tomorrow.
-- from Die Another Day
Is that an owl, or are you just happy to eat me?
American people like to say, "What do you mean exactly?" I would answer: "I mean, but not exactly."
-- Jean-Luc Godard, interview with Gavin Smith, Film Comment, March-April 1996, also here: https://www.filmcomment.com/article/jean-luc-godard-interview-nouvelle-vague-histoires-du-cinema-helas-pour-moi/
But he didn't listen. You could tell him you were a serial killer and he'd say, "What are your plans for the future?"
-- Dame Edna Everage
When to Love New Yorkers
You animal, you. Go back to the farm. They're looking for you at the sancutary. You filthy animal. You QAnon lunatic. Hit her with the space lasers. Blast her with the fuckin' space lasers. Get the fuck outta New York, you racist, filthy, infected animal. Get the fuck outta here.
-- Michael Rapaport shouting at Marjorie Taylor Greene as she fled a New York crowd.
Carlson’s producer, Alex Pfeiffer, responded: "It is so insane but our viewers believe it so addressing again how her stupid Venezuela affidavit isn't proof might insult them."
Shah advised that [Tucker] Carlson should mention the affidavit noting it was "not new info, not proof" but then quickly "pivot to being deferential."
Pfeiffer, who has since left the network, answered that the delicate dance was "surreal."
"Like negotiating with terrorists," he added, "but especially dumb ones. Cousin f----- types not saudi royalty."
-- Rosalind S. Helderman and Josh Dawsey, Washington Post, March 12, 2023
"I'll tell you the biggest problem that has always haunted me about Solo," he said. "I'm going to reveal the writer's nightmare right now."
"If Dryden Vos is so concerned about exposing his gang in the [Kessel] heist, why does he send his most trusted aid [Qi'ra] to be the most visible member of the team that steals the coaxium?" asked Kasdan. "It seems to me that he's going to have to kill her almost immediately just to separate himself from that job."
The writer added that the plot hole "always drove me crazy," and was "a problem that I was eager to retcon in a sequel."
-- Jonathan Kasdan, as quoted here, among other places: https://comicbook.com/starwars/news/star-wars-solo-writer-reveals-biggest-problem-that-always-haunted-him/
Now I know what's been causing my sleep problems.
"Instead of focusing on what I said in my speech . . . Many people chose to only talk about close-up photos of me," Madonna said in an Instagram caption about the response to her cosmetic work. "Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny that permeates the world we live in."
What she should have said: "Instead of focusing on what I said in my speech, many people chose to focus on what I said with my face, because aesthetic communication is arguably a more powerful form of communication — one that has a long and insidious history of seeding oppressive beauty standards throughout society, setting stifling appearance expectations for women, and influencing cultural attitudes toward those who don’t comply. I am once again caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny that I myself uphold by adopting ageist, sexist beauty ideals."
-- Jessica DeFino, https://jessicadefino.substack.com/p/madonna-plastic-surgery-face-grammys?r=133q3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Good thing she had a woman to talk for her, so it wasn't mansplaining.
As Good as Food
They are convenient, easy to prepare, and palatable.
-- Voiceover for frozen foods ad clipped in The Automat
If money is evil then that building [stock market exchange] is hell. This is the most obnoxious group of money hungry, low IQ, high energy, jack rabbit, fuckin wannabe big-time, small-time, shit-talkin', bothersome irritating bunch of motherfuckers I have ever had to endure for more than five minutes.
-- Robert Downey Jr., from The Last Party - Wall Street
Just Asking
Harry Potter: is there a less appealing fictional character?
Why People Don't Want to Be Famous
After starting a family, Bridget [Fonda] and Danny [Elfman] started to live their lives away from the spotlight. They haven’t done many interviews and they still have yet to create an official Instagram account for themselves.
-- Closer Weekly
Meme 352
I just made the film. It wasn't with any theme in mind. My film is similar to the process of meeting people. You meet someone and get an impression, and make a judgment with that. But tomorrow, you might discover different things. I hope my film can be similar in complexity to a living thing. Starting with a theme will make it all veer to one point. We don't appreciate films for their themes. We've just been taught that way. Teachers always ask, "What's the theme?" But before asking, aren't we already reacting to the film? It's no fun pouring all things into a funnel. That's too simple.
-- Oki's Movie (script by Sang-soo Hong)
Laughter, tears, curtain.
-- Topsy-Turvy (script by Mike Leigh)
If I, as an artist, want to portray the world as it is, I must not portray it as it looks because it isn't like that. So if I want to show the world as it is, I must invent it.
-- Ernst Peter Fischer, Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint
Listening is the route to sex and grammar.
-- Gay Talese, Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists
La noirceur du propos va même plus loin puisque dans Panique, l’amour est aussi malsain que l’effet de groupe et conduit à des comportements tout autant condamnables.
[The darkness of the subject goes even further since in Panic, love is as unhealthy as the group effect and leads to equally reprehensible behaviors.]
-- Panique, de Julien Duvivier (1946) par Renaud, mercredi 08 octobre, on http://je-mattarde.com/index.php?post/Panique-de-Julien-Duvivier-1956
Do not destroy my plan! No! It is my big idea!
-- The Guardians [Zashchitniki] (2017; unattributed English translation for subtitles)
What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, and every day, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts (which are but the mute articulation of his feelings), not those other things, are his history. His acts and his words are merely the visible thin crust of his world, with its scattered snow summits and its vacant wastes of water -- and they are so trifling a part of his bulk! -- a mere skin enveloping it. The mass of him is hidden -- it and its volcanic fires that toss and boil, and never rest, night nor day. These are his life, and they are not written, and cannot be written.
-- Mark Twain, The Autobiography of Mark Twain