Sign in with Facebook
I locked up again, choked my car to life and rode off home to a shower, dry clothes and a late dinner.
“Crime Wave suggests a reciprocal synchronicity. It was shot in ’52 and released in ’54. It’s got that transitional look that so informs LAPD ’53. The old L.A.’s getting a modernist makeover. Spaceship cars are on the rise, humpbacked cars are on the wane. Buildings are going low, flat and angular. Isolated structures stand out, juxtaposed against vacant lots. Chinatown looks freshly painted and garishly redone. City streets look significantly wider than they do today. That’s because of a scarcity of parked cars and passing motorists. Crime Wave bids the viewer to watch this—L.A.’s on the rise, and what you’re seeing won’t last much longer.”
― LAPD '53
― LAPD '53
“HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD IS THE HEART OF the heartless Hollywood legend. Like special moths attracted to the special glitter of the nihilistic movie capital, the untalented or undiscovered are spewed into the streets by the make-it legend.”
― City of Night
― City of Night
“I think I started out reading children’s books. I remember, in particular, books like The Once and Future King or the Narnia series or Tolkien. Charlotte’s Web – I remember that so clearly – and I reread that recently. Suddenly, rereading it, I realised that we think that’s a book about a little girl who saves the life of a pig, who then makes friends with a spider. Right? But what I didn’t realise until I reread it, is that the spider, Charlotte, is a writer. She’s the one who saves the pig’s life by writing words in her web. I think that was a theme: many of the books that I loved were about writers and, particularly, little girls who are writers – Harriet the Spy, that kind of thing.”
― Always Take Notes: Advice from Some of the World's Greatest Writers
― Always Take Notes: Advice from Some of the World's Greatest Writers
“At Woodland, in walked David Geffen, Anjelica Huston, maybe Dustin Hoffman, tennis shoes under his arm. “Did I miss the game?” Alain Delon … Mengers and Evans at the pool, drinking a bottle of white wine cellar–plucked for the occasion: “Now really, Sue … Do you get white wine at Columbia?” Giggling: “You and I have never agreed on any kind of material. And so far you’ve been right.” Now down to casting. “I think of De Niro.…”
― The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood
― The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood
“On the phone in the living room, Henry Kissinger, a frequent overnight guest, engages in apparently serious conversation: “Mm. Yes. Yes, undoubtedly.…” Gilruth swoops in to light pine-scented candles and slip a coaster under Kissinger’s drink. Kissinger nods his thanks. Gilruth nods back. They’ve done this before. The music, a comely mingling of rock and jazz standards: “You must remember this.…” The threads of golden sconce light pinging off the roses … The china, gilded with a naked girl riding a centaur, waiting contentedly on a dining room table. Printed linen walls.… Gilruth—handsomely grizzled, William Holden with a tan—whistles while he works. “A sigh is just a sigh.…” “Yes,” Kissinger says. “Yes, goodbye.” Click. “The fun-da-mental things … apply.…” Kissinger stands. “As time”—he croaks on his way to the guest room to change—“goes … by.…”
― The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood
― The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood
Maxwell Hoffmann’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Maxwell Hoffmann’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
153 books
|
44 friends
442 books
|
37 friends
1,765 books
|
83 friends
1,145 books
|
45 friends
269 books
|
12 friends
508 books
|
16 friends
156 books
|
185 friends
29 books
|
116 friends
More friends…
Polls voted on by Maxwell Hoffmann
Lists liked by Maxwell Hoffmann
