Quotes by Screenwriters - Page 8

A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all.
Rita Mae Brown
It seems to occur to few of the attendees [of a writing retreat] that if you have a feel you just can't describe, you might just be, I don't know, kind of like, my sense of it is, maybe in the wrong fucking class.
Stephen King
The book was blunt and had an honesty about it, whereas the movie was just a beautiful lie.
Bret Easton Ellis
If you feel that strongly about something, you have an obligation to try and change my mind.
Aaron Sorkin
In Hollywood, no one knows anything.
William Goldman
Writer's block? I've heard of this. This is when a writer cannot write, yes? Then that person isn't a writer anymore. I'm sorry, but the job is getting up in the fucking morning and writing for a living.
Warren Ellis
Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do― to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.
Stephen King
Katika dunia ya leo ambapo mamilioni ya watu hutegemea utandawazi kupata pesa, kuwa na imani kwamba kupokea pesa kutoka kwa mtu usiyemjua au mtu mwenye nia mbaya na wewe ni kikwazo kikubwa cha maendeleo kwa sababu, karibu kila mtu unayekutana naye ni Shetani. Shetani ni mtu yoyote mwenye nia mbaya na wewe. Hivyo, kama uliwahi kuambiwa kwamba kupokea pesa kutoka kwa mtu usiyemjua ni kitu kibaya futa imani hiyo. Utaachaje kupokea pesa kutoka kwa mtu usiyemjua wakati kila siku unamwomba Mungu akusaidie, na Mungu hutenda kazi zake pale tunapojisahau? La sivyo hutapata pesa unayotamani kupata katika maisha yako, na kamwe hutawaamini watu. Zaka huondoa laana ya mapato. Toa zaka kununua pepo uliyopewa na Mungu.
Enock Maregesi
Kilio kikuu cha Yesu, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabakthani?”, yaani, “Mungu wangu, Mungu wangu, mbona umeniacha?”, na “Imekwisha”, vilitabiriwa katika Zaburi 22 ili watu waliompinga Kristo waamini kama Yesu alikuwa Masihi. Zaburi 22 ulikuwa wimbo maarufu katika kipindi cha karne ya kwanza, kipindi ambacho Yesu alizaliwa na kufa, uliotungwa na mfalme Daudi, ulioitwa ‘zaburi ya mateso na matumaini ya mwadilifu’. Kwa hiyo Yesu aliposema maneno hayo yaliwaingia watu akilini, na kuanzia hapo imani hasa ya Ukristo ikachukua kasi hadi leo hii. Zaburi 22 inaanza na “Mungu wangu, Mungu wangu, mbona umeniacha?” na inaisha na “Imekwisha”, miongoni mwa maneno saba aliyoyasema Yesu pale msalabani Golgotha. Kwa hiyo, Zaburi 22 ni utabiri wa kifo cha Yesu.
Enock Maregesi
Kuna nguzo saba ambazo hazina budi kuzingatiwa kama unataka kuheshimiwa na kuwaheshimu wengine. Kwanza kabisa jitambue: wewe ni nani na unafanya nini hapa duniani. Halafu, kabla ya kusema jambo lolote kwa mtu yoyote fikiria kwanza maana au madhara ya hilo unalotaka kulisema. Kisha jifunze tamaduni mbalimbali na watendee wengine kama vile unavyotaka kutendewa au kama vile wanavyotaka kutendewa. Jifunze kusamehe na kusuluhisha migogoro katika jamii unamoishi huku ukidumisha heshima na utu kwa binadamu wenzako. Jijengee imani kwa watu, punguza upendeleo, fanya kazi kama timu kwani hakuna ‘mimi’ katika umoja ila kuna ‘sisi’, na jitahidi kwa kadiri ya uwezo wako WOTE kwa manufaa ya wote. Kuwa kiongozi katika kila jambo unalofanya na katika kila kitu unachofanya. Jitahidi kufanya jambo au kitu kwa usahihi kwa kadiri utakavyoweza.
Enock Maregesi
Kumwamini Mwenyezi Mungu wakati wa raha ni rahisi kuliko kumwamini Mwenyezi Mungu wakati wa shida, na utahitaji imani kuendelea kumwamini wakati wa dhiki. Vipindi vigumu katika maisha yetu hutokea kwa kila mmoja wetu. Kuamini ya kwamba Mungu ana makusudi ya lazima kukuondolea vikwazo katika maisha yako ni vigumu sana wakati mwingine, lakini imani ndicho kitu cha muhimu zaidi unachotakiwa kuwa nacho katika kipindi hiki ambacho dunia imekata tamaa. Amani ya Mungu, ambayo huzidi hekima na maarifa yote ya kibinadamu, ni kuliamini neno la Mungu kwamba ni la kweli. Bila imani hutaweza kumfurahisha Mungu. Imani ni ufunguo wa nguvu, uwezo na neema ambavyo Mungu ametupangia. Kwa ufupi, Mungu ni mkubwa kuliko wewe na matatizo yako.
Enock Maregesi
Pambana na Shetani kwa upanga wa imani ambao ni ukweli kwani ukweli ndiyo utakaokuweka huru.
Enock Maregesi
Vita ya Shetani na Mungu inatuathiri zaidi sisi wanadamu – na hapo baadaye itamuathiri Shetani pia. Vita hii haiwezi kuisha hadi siku ya mwisho, Yesu Kristo atakaporudi kuwachukua wateule wake. Pambana kwa njia ya maombi hadi siku ya mwisho kwa sababu adui tunayepambana naye hana muda wa kupumzika. Pambana kujiombea na kuwaombea wengine waliohai, na hata wale ambao bado hawajazaliwa, kabla mafuta ya dunia hii hayajalipuka. Usiishi kama adui wa msalaba wa Yesu Kristo, badala yake, ishi kama rafiki wa msalaba wa Yesu Kristo. Kuishi kama rafiki wa msalaba wa Yesu Kristo ni kupinga majivuno yote ya Shetani kwa upendo uliotukuka wa kujishusha au kujidharirisha, kutokutetereka hata kidogo na tamaa za ulimwengu huu kwa upendo mkubwa wa umaskini, na kutokuyumba wakati wa matatizo kwa sababu wakati wa amani ulijilimbikizia imani.
Enock Maregesi
Secure tomorrow today by sowing good seeds today and by watering them with faith and love to others.
Enock Maregesi
From this outer edge of his life, looking back, there was only one remorse, and that was only that he wished to go on living. Did all dying people feel this way, as if they had never lived? Did life seem that short, indeed, over and done before you took a breath? Did it seem this abrupt and impossible to everyone, or only to himself, here, now, with a few hours left to him for thought and deliberation?
Ray Bradbury
Killing is not so easy as the innocent believe.
J.K. Rowling
I can always look up at the cosmos and marvel, no matter what happens. And when I look up at it, I feel as though my problems are small. I don't know why, but it always makes me feel better.
Matthew Quick
Happiness is an illusion, Natalie. It doesn't actually exist.""Of course it does," I said. "It's what you feel when you're not sad.""That's unconsciousness. And I'm pretty sure that I'm miserable when I am unconscious, too.
Lee Goldberg
Heshima hujengwa kwa hekima, haijengwi kwa misuli.
Enock Maregesi
Mfalme Sulemani alikuwa mtu mwenye hekima kuliko wote ulimwenguni. Anatushauri, “Adui yako akiwa ana njaa, mpe chakula; Tena akiwa ana kiu, mpe maji ya kunywa; Maana utatia makaa ya moto kichwani pake; Na BWANA atakupa thawabu (Mithali 25:21-22). Yesu anasema jambo fulani linalofanana sana na hilo katika mafundisho Yake yaliyofuata (Mathayo 5:44-45). Kitendo cha kutukanwa, kupigwa, kushtakiwa au kulazimishwa kubeba mzigo mzito usio wa kwako kinaweza kusababisha mafutu mabaya kabisa katika asili ya binadamu. Yaani, chuki, hasira, ukatili na hata vurugu. Lakini pale wale waliobarikiwa kuwa na hekima wanapojikuta katika majaribu makubwa kama hayo tabia yao haitakiwi kuwa ya shari, inda au ya kulipiza kisasi. Bali inatakiwa kuwa ya kusaidia, kuwa na ridhaa ya kutenda mambo mema, na kuwa mwema kwa wengine siku zote.
Enock Maregesi
Mungu hatakubali kuwa na mtu katika ufalme wake ambaye hatakubali kutawaliwa naye. Usikubali kutawaliwa na Ibilisi, kubali kutawaliwa na Mungu. Ni jukumu letu kuanza kuishi sasa kama vile tutakavyoishi mbinguni. Shetani anataka uwe na hekima ya duniani ili akupumbaze. Lakini hofu ya Mungu ndiyo msingi wa hekima ya kweli. Ukitaka asikupumbaze, pokea Roho ya Mungu kwa kubatizwa. Ukiipokea Roho ya Mungu utajua mambo ya Mungu, ambayo dunia haiwezi kujua.
Enock Maregesi
Mungu ana uwezo wa kukuwekea ulinzi kulia na kushoto yaani anayekulinda naye ana mlinzi wake. Lakini wakati mwingine anaacha ufuate kile ambacho moyo wako unataka kwa sababu hataki kukulazimisha ijapokuwa uwezo huo anao. Mungu hakukuumba kuwa roboti. Alikuumba kuwa huru kuchagua mema au mabaya usije ukamlaumu baadaye kwamba ulimchagua yeye kwa sababu hukuwa na uhuru. Msikilize Roho wa Mungu, kabla na katika kila jambo unalofanya.
Enock Maregesi
Wewe kuingilia mambo ya John ni sawa na kusema, ‘Mungu umeshindwa hebu ngoja na mimi nijaribu; ngoja niingilie kati kukusaidia juu ya maisha ya John Doe.’ Hiyo ni dhambi. Tena ni dhambi kubwa. Unajifananisha na Mungu; kwamba Mungu wa John Doe ameshindwa kwa hiyo mungu wewe ndiye utakayemtatulia matatizo yake. Amri kuu ya kwanza ya Mungu inasema, ‘Usiwe na miungu mingine ila mimi.’ Kuingilia mambo ya John tayari umevunja amri ya kwanza ya Mungu kwa kujifanya Mungu. Mungu ana mpango na maisha ya John, na anatumia matatizo yake kumfikisha kwenye takdiri aliyompangia. Hivyo, wewe si Mungu, acha Mungu afanye kazi yake. Mungu akikuruhusu kuingilia kati, yaani John akiamua kwa hiari yake mwenyewe kukuomba msaada wa mawazo au ushauri, maana yake ni kwamba Mungu amekuchagua wewe kuwa sehemu ya mafanikio ya John Doe.
Enock Maregesi
Wanasayansi wanasema hakuna Mungu kwa sababu hawawezi kumwona wala kumgusa. Lakini nao hawana akili kwa sababu hawawezi kuiona wala kuigusa.
Enock Maregesi
I believe in a benevolent God not because He created the Grand Canyon or Michelangelo, but because He gave us snacks.
Paul Rudnick
There was only one guy in the whole Bible Jesus ever personally promised a place with him in Paradise. Not Peter, not Paul, not any of those guys. He was a convicted thief, being executed. So don't knock the guys on death row. Maybe they know something you don't.
Neil Gaiman
There were only the great diamonds and sapphires and emerald mists and velvet inks of space, with God's voice mingling among the crystal fires.
Ray Bradbury
God's creatures who cried themselves to sleep stirred to cry again.
Thomas Harris
Questions of absolute good and evil are much better not opened to public debate these days, when so few people are sure of their absolutes
Sidney Howard
Until you guys own your own souls you don't own mine. Until you guys can be trusted every time and always, in all times and conditions, to seek the truth out and find it and let the chips fall where they may—until that time comes, I have the right to listen to my conscience, and protect my client the best way I can. Until I'm sure you won't do him more harm than you'll do the truth good. Or until I'm hauled before somebody that can make me talk.
Raymond Chandler
It's harder to pick and choose when you're dead. It's like a photograph, you know. It doesn't matter as much.
Neil Gaiman
In fact we put so many things in our mouths we constantly have to be reminded what not to eat. Look at that little package of silicon gel that's inside your sneakers. It says DO NOT EAT for a reason. Somewhere sometime some genius bought a pair of sneakers and said Ooooh look. They give you free mints with the shoes
Morgan Spurlock
Sex is mathematics. Individuality no longer an issue. What does intelligence signify? Define reason. Desire - meaningless. Intellect is not a cure. Justice is dead.
Bret Easton Ellis
Television's perfect. You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back and drain your mind of all thought. And there you are watching the bubbles in the primeval ooze. You don't have to concentrate. You don't have to react. You don't have to remember. You don't miss your brain because you don't need it. Your heart and liver and lungs continue to function normally. Apart from that, all is peace and quiet. You are in the man's nirvana. And if some poor nasty minded person comes along and says you look like a fly on a can of garbage, pay him no mind. He probably hasn't got the price of a television set.
Raymond Chandler
Corrival looked around. 'So is this it? Is everyone here? Erskine, maybe you should start the ball rolling. I have places to go and things to do.''Me?' Ravel asked. 'Why do I have to start it? You're the most respected mage here. You start it, or Skulduggery.'Skulduggery shook his head. 'I can't start it. I don't like most of these people. I might start shooting.
Derek Landy
A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded.
Daniel Handler
Right, you've got a crooked sort of cross..." He consulted Unfogging the Future. "That means you're going to have 'trials and suffering' — sorry about that — but there's a thing that could be the sun... hang on... that means 'great happiness'... so you're going to suffer but be very happy...""You need your Inner Eye tested, if you ask me," said Ron, and they both had to stifle their laughs as Professor Trelawney gazed in their direction.
J.K. Rowling
You have no idea about presents or what they mean. The lastpresent you gave me was a stick.”“You wanted a weapon.”“It was a stick.”“It had a bow on it.”“It was a stick.”“I thought you liked the stick. You laughed.
Derek Landy
The poor things keep calling in those – those pumbles, I think they're called – you know, the ones who mend pipes and things – ""Plumbers?"" – exactly, yes, but of course they're flummoxed.
J.K. Rowling
Along with the standard computer warranty agreement which said that if the machine 1) didn't work, 2) didn't do what the expensive advertisements said, 3) electrocuted the immediate neighborhood, 4) and in fact failed entirely to be inside the expensive box when you opened it, this was expressly, absolutely, implicitly and in no event the fault or responsibility of the manufacturer, that the purchaser should consider himself lucky to be allowed to give his money to the manufacturer, and that any attempt to treat what had just been paid for as the purchaser's own property would result in the attentions of serious men with menacing briefcases and very thin watches. Crowley had been extremely impressed with the warranties offered by the computer industry, and had in fact sent a bundle Below to the department that drew up the Immortal Soul agreements, with a yellow memo form attached just saying: 'Learn, guys...
Neil Gaiman
I swear, talking to you is like talking to a really good-looking and mildly stupid brick wall.
Derek Landy
You have a very open relationship with your fans.""Yes. We have an open relationship. Obviously they can see other authors if they want, and I can see other readers.
Neil Gaiman
Noseless and Handless, the Lannister Boys.
George R.R. Martin
Ask us no questions and we’ll tell you no lies.
J.K. Rowling
Stairs," Valkyrie said, disappointed."Not just ordinary stairs," Skulduggery told her as he led the way down. "Magic stairs.""Really?""Oh, yes."She followed him into the darkness. "How are they magic?""They just are.""In what way?""In a magicky way."She glared at the back of his head. "They aren't magic at all, are they?""Not really.
Derek Landy
We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.
David Mamet
I’ll make Goyle do lines, it’ll kill him, he hates writing,” said Ron happily. He lowered his voice to Goyle’s low grunt and, screwing up his face in a look of pained concentration, mimed writing in midair. “I... must... not... look... like... a... baboon’s... backside.
J.K. Rowling
The house smelled musty and damp, and a little sweet, as if it were haunted by the ghosts of long-dead cookies.
Neil Gaiman
Name the different kinds of people,’ said Miss Lupescu. ‘Now.’Bod thought for a moment. ‘The living,’ he said. ‘Er. The dead.’ He stopped. Then, ‘... Cats?’ he offered, uncertainly.
Neil Gaiman
You are your mother's trueborn son of Lannister.""Am I?" the dwarf replied, sardonic. "Do tell my lord father. My mother died birthing me, and he's never been sure.""I don't even know who my mother was," Jon said. "Some woman, no doubt. Most of them are." He favored Jon with a rueful grin. "Remember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs."And with that he turned and sauntered back into the feast, whistling a tune. When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.
George R.R. Martin
Who're you going with, then?" said Ron."Angelina," said Fred promptly, without a trace of embarrassment."What?" said Ron, taken aback. "You've already asked her?""Good point," said Fred. He turned his head and called across the common room, "Oi! Angelina!"Angelina, who had been chatting with Alicia Spinnet near the fire, looked over at him."What?" She called back."Want to come to the ball with me?"Angelina gave Fred a sort of appraising look."All right, then," she said, and she turned back to Alicia and carried on chatting with a bit of a grin on her face."There you go," said Fred to Harry and Ron, "piece of cake.
J.K. Rowling
Mistletoe," said Luna dreamily, pointing at a large clump of white berries placed almost over Harry's head. He jumped out from under it. "Good thinking," said Luna seriously. "It's often infested with nargles.
J.K. Rowling
I don’t ever remember being afraid of “oldness”.There are things I miss about being younger - chiefly the ability to pull all-nighters and keep working and working well; and being smiled at by girls I didn’t know who thought I was cute; and I wish I had the eyesight I had even five years ago… but that stuff feels pretty trivial. I’m happier than I’ve been at any time in my life these days. I have a wonderful wife whom I adore, watched three amazing kids grow into two delightful adults and my favourite teenager, an astonishing number of grand life experiences, I’ve made art I’m proud of, I have real, true, glorious friends, and I’ve been able to do real good for things I care about, like freedom of speech, like libraries.Sometimes I’ll do something like An Evening With Neil and Amanda, or the 8 in 8 project, and completely surprise myself.I miss friends who have died, but then, I’m glad that time gave them to me, to befriend, even for a while, and that I was alive to know them. I knew Douglas Adams, and I knew Roger Zelazny, and I knew John M Ford, and I knew Diana Wynne Jones… do you know how lucky that makes me?Ah, I’m rabbiting on, and I sound a bit more Pollyannaish than I’m intending to sound: I know the downside of age and the downside of time, and I am sure that the view from age 51 is not the view from age 71.I wish the time hadn’t gone so fast, though. And sometimes I wish I’d enjoyed it more on the way, and worried about it less.
Neil Gaiman
But as I have noticed on more than one occaision, life itself is unfair, and there is no complaint department, so we might as well accept things the way they happen, clean up the mess, and move on.
Jeff Lindsay
He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activites in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they'd have no heart to start at all.
Cormac McCarthy
Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. She'd believed in it once too, back when she was eighteen. But she knew that love was messy, just like life. It took turns that people couldn't foresee or even understand, leaving a long trail of regret in its wake. And almost always, those regrets led to the kinds of what if questions that could never be answered.
Nicholas Sparks
Cynics are simply thwarted romantics.
William Goldman
I DON'T CARE!" Harry yelled at them, snatching up a lunascope and throwing it into the fireplace. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!""You do care," said Dumbledore. He had not flinched or made a single move to stop Harry demolishing his office. His expression was calm, almost detached. "You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.
J.K. Rowling
For a moment, I wondered how different my life would have been had they been my parents, but I shook the thought away. I knew my father had done the best he could, and I had no regrets about the way I'd turned out. Regrets about the journey, maybe, but not the destination. Because however it had happened, I'd somehow ended up eating shrimp in a dingy downtown shack with a girl that I already knew I'd never forget.
Nicholas Sparks
How can you still count yourself a knight, when you have forsaken every vow you ever swore?" Jaime reached for the flagon to refill his cup. "So many vows...they make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Keep his secrets. Do his bidding. Your life for his. But obey your father. Love your sister. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. Respect the gods. Obey the laws. It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or the other.
George R.R. Martin