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- “That’s the way I work: I try to imagine what I would like to see.” — Sofia Coppola
- “I’m very concerned that we don’t make movies that are original anymore.” — Robert Zemeckis
- “Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it.” — Stevie Wonder
- “I was a sinister child, lazy and cynical.” — Eve Babitz
- Elvis takes New Orleans: talking King Creole on the Guide for the Film Fanatic podcast
- Miscast? Mayyyybe.
- “I don’t care how afraid I may be inside — I do what I think I should.” — Katharine Hepburn
- “I think a fear of portraying something negatively ends up creating more stereotypes.” — Sophia Takal
- “My dear child, I’m sure we shall be allowed to laugh in Heaven!” — Edward Lear
- “I know that for myself, what is deeper than I understand is often the most pertinent to me and the most lasting.” — Lorine Niedecker
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- Jessie on “I just love telling stories. That’s what we do and it’s a good business to be in, especially if you know you have talent.” –Jensen Ackles
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- Jessie on “You are not acting so much as being. The result is realism.” — Gary Cooper
- sheila on “You are not acting so much as being. The result is realism.” — Gary Cooper
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- Maddy on “Maybe it’s a generational thing but I never wanted to be the best black dancer in the world. I wanted to be the best.” — Judith Jamison
- Maddy on “You are not acting so much as being. The result is realism.” — Gary Cooper
- Maddy on “As long as politics is this confused and evil, turning away from it would be cowardly.” — 20th century hero Sophie Scholl
- sheila on “A lot of people try to equate me with guys like Frankie Avalon and Fabian, but in the old days I sold a lot of records over a period of time, and you can’t sustain that by being just another pretty face.” — Ricky Nelson
- mutecypher on “A lot of people try to equate me with guys like Frankie Avalon and Fabian, but in the old days I sold a lot of records over a period of time, and you can’t sustain that by being just another pretty face.” — Ricky Nelson
- sheila on “A lot of people try to equate me with guys like Frankie Avalon and Fabian, but in the old days I sold a lot of records over a period of time, and you can’t sustain that by being just another pretty face.” — Ricky Nelson
- sheila on “You are not acting so much as being. The result is realism.” — Gary Cooper
- mutecypher on “A lot of people try to equate me with guys like Frankie Avalon and Fabian, but in the old days I sold a lot of records over a period of time, and you can’t sustain that by being just another pretty face.” — Ricky Nelson
- Maddy on “You are not acting so much as being. The result is realism.” — Gary Cooper
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: As You Like It
- mutecypher on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: As You Like It
- sheila on “A woman came up to me after one of the screenings with tears pouring down her face and sobbed, You’ve defined my entire life for me on the screen.” –Jill Clayburgh
- Brett Hetherington on The Books: A Collection of Essays, ‘Charles Dickens’, by George Orwell
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Category Archives: Books
“Good acting is thinking in front of the camera. I just do that and apply a sense of humor to it. You have to trust the audience to get it.” — Charles Grodin
It’s Charles Grodin’s birthday today. Here is a re-post of the piece I wrote when Charles Grodin died in 2021. Heartbreak Kid. Ishtar. Heaven Can Wait. Midnight Run. Muppet Caper. Rosemary’s Baby. Seems Like Old Times (not as well-known, but … Continue reading
“The only cause I espouse is man’s right to find his own centre, stand firm, speak out, then be kind.” — Michael Davitt, “Dissenter”
Save your breath, Poem maker Keep it under wraps In the tall tree of yourself — Michael Davitt Both quotes above are English translations of the original Irish language versions, just to be clear. Poet Michael Davitt, born (on this … Continue reading
“Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
”I’ve always been much influenced by the 17th-century metaphysical poets like Donne, and especially Henry Vaughan.” — Philip K. Dick It’s Henry Vaughan’s birthday today. I was just thinking the other day about how I encountered certain famous writers in … Continue reading
“Even though I’m writing about very dark material, it still feels like an escape hatch.” — Olivia Laing
“As a writer, I am always trying to get past abstraction, the world of ideas, and putting actual objects in my writing — paintings, photographs — really helps with that. They’re beautiful tools with which to think.” — Olivia Laing … Continue reading
“Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
Joan Acocella, longtime dance critic for The New Yorker, and regular contributor to the New York Review of Books died in 2024 at the age of 78, and I did not mark her passing. It’s her birthday today. Acocella brought … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged ballet, Bob Fosse, dance, Dorothy Parker, essays, H.L. Mencken, Joan Acocella, Martha Graham, nonfiction, Nureyev, Primo Levi
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“I trust contrariness. I simply rebelled at being commanded.” — Seamus Heaney
It’s his birthday today. For the winter issue of Liberties, I wrote about books, my father, and Seamus Heaney’s poem on Clonmacnoise. Every collection of Seamus Heaney’s work that I own, the poems, the essays, were given to me by … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, Personal, writers
Tagged Belfast, Ireland, Irish poetry, poetry, Seamus Heaney
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“If you don’t see the book you want on the shelves, write it.” — Beverly Cleary
“I think children want to read about normal, everyday kids. That’s what I wanted to read about when I was growing up. I wanted to read about the sort of boys and girls that I knew in my neighborhood and … Continue reading
“Art indeed is long, but life is short.” — Metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell
“Andrew Marvell spans three ages like a delicate but serviceable bridge. The first length spans Charles I’s reign and fall, the second spans the Commonwealth, the third the Restoration.” — Michael Schmidt, Lives of the Poets It’s his birthday today. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Camille Paglia, England, Harold Bloom, John Aubrey, Michael Schmidt, poetry, politics, Six Centuries of Great Poetry, T.S. Eliot
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It’s the birthday of “The Woman Who Wouldn’t Forget”: Iris Chang
Iris Chang’s research into the atrocities committed by the Japanese on the Chinese people – particularly Chinese women – during the “rape of Nanking” in 1937 – much of it dug out of buried archives and brought to light for … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged China, Iris Chang, Japan, nonfiction, war, WWII
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“As an outsider I was free to pick my own literary traditions, to build my own system of literary values.” — Dubravka Ugrešić
“Retouching is our favourite artistic device. Each of us is a curator in his own museum…Uncover A, cover up B. Remove all spots. Keep your mouth shut. Think of your tongue as a weapon. Think one thing and say another. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Croatia, Dubravka Ugrešić, fiction, nonfiction, war, Yugoslavia
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