Right beside you.

Light up, light up

As if you have a choice

Even if you cannot hear my voice

I’ll be right beside you dear

Run, Snow Patrol.

Who we really are.

I want you to listen to me very carefully, Harry. You're not a bad person. You're a very good person, who bad things have happened to. Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).

Understanding.

Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person’s essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami.

The pleasure, the privilege.

And if a double-decker bus crashes in to us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die. And if a ten ton truck kills the both of us, to die by your side, well the pleasure, the privilege is mine.

There is a light that never goes out, The Smiths. 

The way I smile.

Sometimes you make me feel like I'm living at the edge of the world, like I'm living at the edge of the world. "It's just the way I smile," you said.

Plainsong. Robert Smith. 

Bizarro crap.

Just because she likes the same bizarro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul-mate. 

(500) Days of Summer (2009), Mark Webb.

What else can we do.

This is our decision to live fast and die young.
We've got the vision, now let's have some fun.
Yeah it's overwhelming, but what else can we do?
Get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?

Forget about our mothers and our friends.
We were fated to pretend.

Time to Pretend, MGMT (2007).

The Laughing Heart

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

Charles Bukowski.

Dots.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Steve Jobs, Stanford's 114th Commencement Address.

Reading.

I merely say that all reading for pleasure is escape, whether it be Greek, mathematics, astronomy, Benedetto Croce, or The Diary of the Forgotten Man. To say otherwise is to be an intellectual snob, and a juvenile at the art of living.


The Simple Art of Murder, Raymond Chandler.

Inside us.

Monsters are real, ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

Stephen King.

Be on your way.

Cause all of the stars have faded away, just try not to worry, you'll see them some day. Take what you need and be on your way, and stop crying your heart out.

Noel Gallagher, Stop crying your heart out.

We live and we die.

In the still of the night, in the world's ancient light, where wisdom grows up in strife, my bewildering brain toils in vain through the darkness on the pathways of life. Each invisible prayer is like a cloud in the air. Tomorrow keeps turning around. We live and we die, we know not why, but I'll be with you when the deal goes down.

Bob Dylan, When the deal goes down.

 

I've been there.

Have you ever bought a ticket to the Junkie's Boneyard, Roman. It's an unpleasent place, called "Curl up and die". Might sound like a hair salon, but it don't fucking look like one, I could tell ya. It's a terrible sight, and a horrible sound listening to a man, suck in his soul through the hole in the pipe. It's even worse when he tries to tear it back. I've been there, and I've done that. And then I nailed that Demon in a smoke proof coffin, and I did it all with Johnny. I love that man, he's what you call class. And if you had any fucking brains, Roman, you'd love him too. You know his music sales have gone up 1000% in two weeks. You see, Johnny the crackhead, knows that a rocker is worth more dead than alive, silly world isn't it? Mr. Quid does not get his gear from me, he has to travel, far and wide. But do leave me a number, and if, the dead, feels like calling, you'll be the first to know. 

RocknRolla (2008), Guy Ritchie.

Time to get to the sea.

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. 

Hermann Melville, Moby Dick.

Worthless.

Nice tries are worthless.

House M.D., Human Error (2007).

Part of my attention.

I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try - but there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing. Did I adequately answer your condescending question?

The Social Network (2010), David Fincher.

Live.

Let go of the past and go for the future. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you imagined.

Henry David Thoreau.

In life.

There were people who had a good time in life. I was beginning to realize I wasn't one of them. 

About a Boy, Nick Hornby.

Extra fast.

They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that's true. What they don't tell you is that when it starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up. 

Big Fish (2003), Tim Burton. 

Stone and steel.

In the absence of your touch, and in the absence of loved ones, I have decided I’m throwing my arms around all of Paris because only stone and steel accept my love.

Throwing my arms around Paris, Morrisey.

Home.

You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone. You'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place.

Garden State (2004), Zach Braff.

Indifferent.

The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent. But if we can come to terms with this indifference, then our existence as a species can have genuine meaning. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.

 

Stanley Kubrick.

The price you pay.

As your leader, I encourage you from time to time, and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you're unconvinced that a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so, but allow me to convince you and I promise you right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo. Except, of course, the subject that was just under discussion. The price you pay for bringing up either my Chinese or American heritage as a negative is... I collect your fucking head. Just like this fucker here. Now, if any of you sons of bitches got anything else to say, now's the fucking time! 

Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), Quentin Tarantino.

Embarrassment.

Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomorrow's embarrassment? 

Jerry Maguire (1996), Cameron Crowe.

You can get me.

Well you can't get what you want, but you can get me. So let's set up and see, 'cause you are my medicine when you're close to me.

On Melancholy Hill, Gorillaz.

Para reír.

Dicen que para reír no hace falta mirar atrás. Y esta vez, para mí, tienen razón.

La mitad del amor. Andrés Calamaro.

The sacred geometry of chance.

He deals the cards to find the answer, the sacred geometry of chance, the hidden law of probable outcome, the numbers lead a dance.

Shape of my heart, Sting.

Impossible things.

"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things." "I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I did it for half an hour every day. Why, sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass.

When last call calls.

Backspin on a work table under a bad light, a kiss of the eight ball, a bank off the six. Double bowl on a single throw, three pints in. Picking up a spare on the final frame. Singing on key, off key and losing keys. Steady hands, blurry eyes. Bars, billiards, basements, bacon sandwiches with extra hot sauce. Surviving buzz kills, third wheels, cock blocks and cabs in the rain. Finish lines drawn by dawn. These are the providence of the after hours athletes. When last call calls, don’t answer. The night too is for sport, and they are the champions.

After Hours Athletes. Puma. Droga5.

First instinct.

For whatever reason, my first instinct is to laugh, when someone does something great.

John Mayer, Where The Light Is.

That sticks.

What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.

Inception (2010), Christopher Nolan. 

When we all fail.

There is a time when we all fail,

some people take it pretty well,

some take it all out on themselves,

some they just take it out on friends.

Everybody plays the game,

and if you don't you're called insane.

I'll try anything once, The Strokes. 

An essential element.

He wonders if words aren't an essential element of sex, if talking isn't finally a more subtle form of touching, and if the images dancing in our heads aren't just as important as the bodies we hold in our arms.

Invisible, Paul Auster.

A spin down the road.

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.

Arthur Conan Doyle.
 

 

Esa suerte.

Mi madre fue muy imaginativa y con una cierta visión del mundo. No era una gente culta pero era incurablemente romántica y me inició en las novelas de viajes. (…) Mi madre leía mala literatura, no era culta, pero su imaginación me abría otras puertas. Teníamos un juego: “Mirar el cielo y buscar la forma de las nubes e inventar grandes historias.” Esto ocurría en Banfield. Mis amigos no tenían esa suerte. No tenían madres que mirasen las nubes. 

Julio Cortázar.

Support group.

Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar.

George Carlin.

Un momento extraordinario.

El fútbol es uno de los grandes fenómenos del Siglo XX. Lo importante es el gol. El fútbol es un deporte en el que se fracasa sistemáticamente porque el 98% del tiempo no se consigue aquello que se busca. Por eso, la llegada del gol es un momento extraordinario, de explosión absoluta.

Martín Caparrós.

Lived.

Harry Potter, the boy who lived... Come to die.

And not have to feel.

Because sometimes people do actually feel that way. Sometimes your life feels like it's caving in on you. Sometimes people really do feel like they don't exist, like they just want to curl up into a ball, and go into that place between life and death. Saying "I don't want to exist" isn't saying "I want to go die". It's saying "I wish that, for the time being, I could go somewhere and not have to feel". I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And if you don't know how it feels to feel this way, then you have no place to judge anyone who does.

The second mouse.

Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse. 

Catch Me If You Can (2002), Steven Spielberg.

She rests at last.

The holy grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits. The blade and chalice guarding o'er her gates. Adorned in masters' loving art, she lies. She rests at last beneath the starry skies.

The Da Vinci Code (2006), Ron Howard. Novel by Dan Brown.

The sweet pitch of its siren.

You see that pack of Virginia killing sticks on the end of the piano? All you need to know about life is retained in those four walls. You will notice that one of your personalities is seduced by the illusions of grandeur - the gold packet of king size with a regal insignia, an attractive implication towards grandeur and wealth, the subtle suggestion that cigarettes are indeed your royal and loyal friends, and that, Pete, is a lie. Your other personality is trying to draw your attention to the flip side of the discussion, written in boring bold black and white, it's a statement that these neat little soldiers of death and in fact trying to kill you and that, Pete, is the truth. Oh, beauty is a beguiling call to death and I'm addicted to the sweet pitch of its siren. That that starts sweet ends bitter, and that which starts bitter ends sweet.That is why you and I love the drugs and that is also why I cannot give that painting back. Now please, pass me a light. 

Rocknrolla (2008), Guy Ritchie.

For twenty nine years.

I wanna hurry home to you, 

put on a slow dumb show for you, and crack you up.

You know I dreamed about you,
for twenty-nine years before I saw you.

You know I dreamed about you,
I missed you for twenty-nine years.

Slow Show, The National.

O 32.

Fan.

They don't even know what it is to be a fan. Y'know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts.

Almost Famous (2000), Cameron Crowe.

We drink.

You don't know how to drink, your whole generation. You drink for the wrong reasons. My generation, we drink because it's good. Because it feels better than unbuttoning your collar. Because we deserve it. We drink because it's what men do.

Mad Men, Season 1, Episode 4.

Like new batteries.

She want's to know if I love her, that's all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there, like new batteries in the flashlight in the emergency kit in the hall closet.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer.

Bye.

Bob: Bye.
Charlotte: Bye.
Bob: Bye.
(Bob leaves Charlotte and walks back to his waiting taxi)
Bob: (to taxi driver) All right.

Lost in Translation (2003), Sofia Coppola.
O cómo decir todo sin decir nada.

It had to mean something.

I was continuing to shrink, to become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I the man of the future? If there were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast new world? So close — the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet — like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God’s silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man’s own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends in man’s conception, not nature’s. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero. I still exist!

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), Jack Arnold.

Never grow up.

I'm thirty now, you'd think it would be easy to be an adult, but apparently not. Being in a band you always suffer from being on a state of arrested development anyway, I guess. So whatever point you start a band, that's the point you never grow up past, you know. If you're eighteen, which I was when I started, that's pretty much it for life until we stop playing.

Gary Lightbody, Snow Patrol. Live from Abbey Road.