James P. > James P.'s Quotes

“Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!”
― Bram Stoker

“There are thirty-two ways to write a story, and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot – things are not as they seem.”
― Jim Thompson

“I told her the world was full of nice people. I'd have hated to try to prove it to her, but I said it, anyway.”
― Jim Thompson, A Hell of a Woman

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”
― Terry Pratchett

“It's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it.”
― Terry Pratchett

“In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.”
― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

“God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.”
― Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

“There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.”
― Terry Pratchett

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

“It's the family you choose that counts.”
― Andrew Vachss

“From the very second that two people sat together around a fire in the forest, there was another human out there who felt better in the dark.”
― Andrew Vachss, Flood

“If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors or mounted policemen.”
― Dashiell Hammett

“She grinned at me. 'You got types?'
'Only you darling - lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.”
― Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man

“Nora: "How do you feel?"
Nick: "Terrible. I must've gone to bed sober.”
― Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man

“I don t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.”
― Dasheill Hammett

“I once knew a man who stole a Ferris Wheel...”
― Dashiell Hammett

“Hell's a dry heat too. It still sucks. Let me know if you pull anything. I'm gonna go get a cold beer and pour it down my pants.”
― Christa Faust, Coyote's Kiss

“Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?”
― David Mamet, Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business

“Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only.”
― David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross

“Anyone can write five people trapped in a snowstorm. The question is how you get them into the snowstorm. It's hard to write a good play because it's hard to structure a plot. If you can think of it off the top of your head, so can the audience. To think of a plot that is, as Aristotle says, surprising and yet inevitable, is a lot, lot, lot of work.”
― David Mamet

“Fox: It's lonely at the top.
Gould: But it ain't crowded.”
― David Mamet, Speed-the-Plow

“I couldn't live a week without a private library - indeed, I'd part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess.”
― H. P. Lovecraft

“Never Explain Anything”
― H.P. Lovecraft

“Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places.”
― H.P. Lovecraft

“Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
― H.P. Lovecraft

“Are you always a smartass?'

Nope. Sometimes I'm asleep.”
― Jim Butcher, Blood Rites

“When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ”
― Jim Butcher

“Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar”
― Jim Butcher, Dead Beat

“Of course Evil's afoot. If it had switched to the metric system it'd be up to a meter by now. ”
― Jim Butcher

“You backbiting, poisonous, treacherous, deceitful, wicked, clever girl. If this works I'll buy you a pony.”
― Jim Butcher, Summer Knight