Is all we see or seem But a dream within a dream?
--EDGAR ALLAN POE
"nobody cares but me. are they right? is it futile? soon there will be war. millions will burn. millions will perish in sickness and misery. why does one death matter against so many? because there is good and there is evil, and evil must be punished. even in the face of armageddon I shall not compromise in this."
but there are so many deserving of retribution...
...and there is so little time.
--RORSCHACH'S JOURNAL, October 13th 1985
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
--Benjamin Franklin
"Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled seat belts ever have."
--P.J. O'Rourke
The right of revolution is an inherent one.
When people are oppressed by their government,
it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve
themselves of oppression, if they are strong
enough, either by withdrawal from it, or by
overthrowing it and subsituting a government
more acceptable.
--General Ulysses S. Grant "Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant" (1885)
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
--John F. Kennedy (1917-63), U.S. Democratic politician, president. Address, 25 Sept. 1961, to the U.N. General Assembly.
"Fuck weekend box office receipts, fuck the newspapers who treat them as news, fuck the media conglomerates that own both newpapers and movie studios, fuck the mouthbreathers who line up to assaulted by neon, fake butter and ear-shattering THX, fuck the morons I work with who think paying $26 for a VIP theatre on the opening day of "Phantom Menace" makes them cineastes, fuck Schlockbuster for offering a free third disc to the hapless morons who purchase two DVDs of the shit they buy a zillion copies of and blow-out three weeks later when the next big corn-infested puddle of squits slithers it's way onto disc, fuck Robert DeNiro for making a sequel to "Analyze This", fuck everyone who pays a nickel to see Jim Carrey in anything, fuck fat suits, fuck Martin Lawrence, fuck product placement, fuck fast food promotional tie-ins, fuck Miramax, fuck Dimension, fuck Tom Cruise, his crooked horseteeth and the boggle-eyed anorexic he squirts his loagy semen into, fuck the Oscars, fuck the Golden Globes, fuck Good Morning America, fuck Roger Ebert, fuck Ain't It Cool News, fuck George Lucas with the 1,000 different"Star Wars" toys that occupy aisles of Toys-R-Us, fuck 'em all, the list goes on..."
--The Gore-Met, alt.horror, 12/06/01
As if all businesses joining together into three or four huge monolithic, oppressive regimes was a good thing! Kill mom and pop. Kill the independant businessman. Kill the hearts and souls of the everyday people out there trying as hard as they can to grab just their own little tiny piece of the world. But really, for those everyday people, it's all just an illusion. There's nothing there to grab. Because the megaconglomerates won't let anyone have anything, whether the tools they use are theft, monopoly, intimidation, humiliation, or physical violence. There isn't really an America anymore. There's just those few super-companies that run the world. They're the only nations left. We're living in a time of war, a war fought by those who pledge their allegiances to the corporations, against those independant thinkers who pledge their allegiance to something a little more substantial, whether it be humanity, art, knowledge, or God. Those of us on the independant side, we're losing. We're losing badly.
--Lloyd Kaufman, of Troma Studios, All I Need to Know About FILMMAKING I Learned from THE TOXIC AVENGER, 1998
I urge you: learn to look at 'bad' films, they are often so sublime.
--ABO KYROU
"Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed."
--Will Rogers
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"
--AMENDMENT II, Constitution of the U.S.
Give me a kiss, add to that kiss a score; Then to that twenty, add a hundred more: A thousand to that hundred: so kiss on, To make that thousand up a million. Treble that million, and when that is done, Let's kiss afresh, as when we first begun.
--ROBERT HERRICK
There are persons who, when they cease to shock us, cease to interest us.
--F. H. Bradley (1846-1924), English philosopher. Aphorisms, no. 20 (1930).
I tell you this: No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.
--JIM MORRISON (1943-1971)
The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, "Oh, now I've got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home." And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.
--Thornton Wilder (1897-1975), U.S. novelist, dramatist. Barnaby, in The Matchmaker, act 4.
The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking... The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.
--Albert Einstein
If you don't worry about where you were before you were born, why do you worry about what happens after you die?
--Michel De Montaigne (1533-1592)
That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher. Human, All Too Human, aph. 332 (1878).>
It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.
--E. M. Cioran (b. 1911), Rumanian-born French philosopher. The Trouble with Being Born, ch. 2 (1973).
There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world.
--Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929), French semiologist. America, "Astral America" (1986; tr. 1988).
The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope.
--Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), German critic and philosopher. One-Way Street, "Arc Lamp" (1928; repr. in One-Way Street and Other Writings, 1978).
If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.
--Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859), English author. Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts (1827).
Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
--John Keats (1795-1821), English poet. Letter, 14 Feb.-3 May 1819, to his brother and sister-in-law, George and Georgiana Keats (published in Letters of John Keats, no. 123, ed. by Frederick Page, 1954).
A functioning police state needs no police.
--William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. Dr. Benway, in The Naked Lunch, "Benway" (1959).
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon'em.
--William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English dramatist, poet. Malvolio, in Twelfth Night, act 2, sc. 5, quoting Maria's letter.
Where does one not find that bland degeneration which beer produces in the spirit!
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher. Twilight of the Idols, "What the Germans Lack," aph. 2 (1889).
Bisexuality is almost a necessary factor in artistic production; at any rate, the tinge of masculinity within me helped me in my work.
--Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), German artist. Diaries and Letters, 1942 (ed. by Hans Kollwitz, 1955).
Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion.
--David Cronenberg (b. 1943), Canadian filmmaker. Cronenberg on Cronenberg, ch. 5 (ed. by Chris Rodley, 1992).
A moment of realization is worth a thousand prayers.
--MICKY KNOX , a Natural Born Killer . Interview with Wanyne Gail of 'American Maniacs' at Batonga Penitentary.
It never hurts to help.
--EEK the Cat
The main motive for "nonattachment" is a desire to escape from the pain of living, and above all from love, which, sexual or non-sexual, is hard work.
--George Orwell (1903-50), British author. Shooting an Elephant, "Reflections on Gandhi" (1950).
Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of all children.
--J. O'Barr, The CROW (1981)..
Certain people offer to gig-swap with other bands and then back out of their end of the swap. Offering to trade a gig that you don't have the power to offer is pretty lame. Gig-swapping is a great thing folks...when done professionally. Get your head out of your ass and live up to your end of the deal. Saying someone doesn't fit "the crowd" for a show is a really bad way of telling a band that you don't want them to play the show. Someone tell me Bob Mould (Husker Du) or Rob Wright (NoMeansNo) aren't punk as fuck. It's not about how you dress...how many piercings you have or how big your mohawk is. Some people just don't get it. I'm fucking sick of it. Straight edge was just a song. If bands stopped wanting to be Minor Threat so bad they'd discover their own creativity and be able to play music that came from themselves, not just because their friends think it's cool to be punk.
--SHAYNE BAMPTON, drummer for the HOLLANDALES
Beware thoughts that come in the night. They aren't turned properly; they come in askew, free of sense and restriction, deriving from the most remote of sources.
--William Least Heat Moon [William Trogdon] (b. 1939), U.S. author. Opening words of Blue Highways: A Journey into America (1983).
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
--Thoreau
Of all the things I've lost, the thing I miss the most is my mind.
--Ozzy Osbourne
There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.....and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon...
--Raoul Duke, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas
It sometimes strikes me that the whole of science is a piece of impudence; that nature can afford to ignore our impertinent interference. If our monkey mischief should ever reach the point of blowing up the earth by decomposing an atom, and even annihilated the sun himself, I cannot really suppose that the universe would turn a hair.
--Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), British occultist. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ch. 14 (1929; rev. 1970).
Squeeze human nature into the straitjacket of criminal justice and crime will appear.
--Karl Kraus (1874-1936), Austrian satirist. Morality and Criminal Justice, "The Riehl Case" (1908).
Midnight, and the clock strikes. It is Christmas Day, the werewolves' birthday, the door of the solstice still wide enough open to let them all slink through.
--Angela Carter (1940-92), British author. "The Company of Wolves" (published in Bananas, ed. by Emma Tenant, 1977).
Thinking isn't agreeing or disagreeing. That's voting.
--Robert Frost (1874-1963), U.S. poet. Interview in Writers at Work (Second Series, ed. by George Plimpton, 1963).
Hearts will never be practical until they make them unbreakable.
--The Wizard of Oz
I'm not against the police; I'm just afraid of them.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), Anglo-American filmmaker. Quoted in: New Society (London, 10 May 1984).
Intelligence and war are games, perhaps the only meaningful games left. If any player becomes too proficient, the game is threatened with termination.
--William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. The Adding Machine, "The Hundred Year Plan" (1985).
Silence, indifference and inaction were Hitler's principal allies.
--Lord Jakobovits (b. 1921), Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth. Independent (London, 5 Dec. 1989), on the prosecution of alleged war criminals.
It's red hot, mate. I hate to think of this sort of book getting in the wrong hands. As soon as I've finished this, I shall recommend they ban it.
--Tony Hancock (1924-68), British comedian. "The Missing Page," on "Hancock's Half-Hour," BBC broadcast, 26 Feb. 1960.
You go out tonight
You have fun tonight
Don't let them try to tell you what to do.
You know as well as they do.
You go out tonight
You'll be all right tonight
Don't let nobody tell you
They are always tryin' to sell you...
Views, Attitudes,
Make You lose your point of view..
--Mick De Sadest...and the Forgotten Rebels
Life is like a B-movie. You don't want to leave in the middle of it but you don't want to see it again.
--Ted Turner (b. 1938), U.S. broadcasting and sports executive. International Herald Tribune (Paris, 2 March 1990).
Then said he unto them, "But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
--Luke 22:36
One can love a child, perhaps, more deeply than one can love another adult, but it is rash to assume that the child feels any love in return.
--George Orwell (1903-50), British author. "Such, Such were the Joys" (1947; repr. in The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell (ed. Sonia Orwell & Ian Angus, 1968).
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
--Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), British comic actor, filmmaker. Quoted in his obituary: Guardian (London, 28 Dec. 1977).
Sometimes you got to take a chance, if you want to take a bath.
--Tigero, Son of Lone Wolf - Assassin with Son
Public Opinion . . . an attempt to organise the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.
--Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Gilbert, in The Critic as Artist, pt. 2 (published in Intentions, 1891).
Someday all things will be fair and there will be wonderfull surprises.
I truly do believe this.
--J. O'Barr, THE CROW.
Information is free
Never cheat or lie to get ahead
Thou shall not judge
Everyone is equal in value
Do not destroy unless the cause is justified
--HACKCITY, Hackers Creed
"If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us."
--Herman Hesse
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
--Thomas Paine (1737-1809), Anglo-American political theorist, writer. Rights of Man, pt. 2, ch. 5 (1792).
A man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry.
--Hebrew Bible. Ecclesiastes 8:15.
Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite concious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.
--Socrates (469-399 B.C.), Greek philosopher. Quoted in: Plato, Apology, sct. 19, of "a gentleman with a reputation for wisdom."
A psychotic is someone who has just found out what is really going on.
--William S. Burroughs
We listened to some semiclassical music, and someone got the idea of hooking up the car's old engine to the plaster sheep on the hill. The effect was startling; moths buzzed in the light from its extraordinary vibrations.
--John Ashbery, XV, Girls on the Run
When truth is no longer free, freedom is no longer real: the truths of the police are the truths of today.
--Jacques Prévert (1900-1977), French poet. Spectacle, "Intermède" (1951).
Do not give up.
--Jessica Hart, My Daughter. Inscription on a pencil holder she made me for Father's Day (1999).
All things are sold: the very light of Heaven
Is venal; earth's unsparing gifts of love,
The smallest and most despicable things
That lurk in the abysses of the deep,
All objects of our life, even life itself,
And the poor pittance which the laws allow
Of liberty, the fellowship of man,
Those duties which his heart of human love
Should urge him to perform instinctively,
Are bought and sold as in a public mart
Of undisguising selfishness, that sets
On each its price, the stamp-mark of her reign.
--Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), English poet. Queen Mab, pt. 5 (1813).
However low a man sinks he never reaches the level of the police.
--Quentin Crisp (b. 1908), British author. The Naked Civil Servant, ch. 12 (1968).
He was a wise man who invented beer.
--Plato
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
--Benjamin Franklin
I drink to make other people interesting.
--George Jean Nathan
You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.
--Dean Martin
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.
--Ernest Hemmingway
The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind.
--Humphrey Bogart
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.
--For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway
All right, brain, I don't like you and you don't like me - so let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer.
--Homer Simpson
Junk is the ideal product . . . the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy.
--William Burroughs (b. 1914), U.S. author. The Naked Lunch, Introduction (1959).
One of the joys of going to the movies was that it was trashy, and we should never lose that.
--Oliver Stone (b. 1946), U.S. filmmaker. International Herald Tribune (Paris, 15 Feb. 1988).
Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium!
--Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859), English author. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, pt. 2, "The Pleasures of Opium" (1822).
My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.
--Errol Flynn (1909-59), U.S. screen actor. Quoted in: Jane Mercer, Great Lovers of the Movies, "Errol Flynn" (1975).
A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.
--Albert Camus Notebooks 1935-42
You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
--James Thurber (1894-1961), U.S. humorist, illustrator. Fables for Our Time, Moral of "The Owl Who Was God" (1940).
Kill a man one is a murderer; kill a million, a conqueror; kill them all, a God.
--Jean Rostand (1894-1977), French biologist, writer. Pensées d'un Biologiste (1939; repr. in The Substance of Man, 1962, p. 68).
The cash is the only part I'm *not* ambivalent about. Everything else to do with Hollywood pretty much makes me ill.
--Poppy Z. Bright, alt.books.poppy-z-brite, 27/05/00.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone."
--Clinical Effects of atropine poisoning from ingestion or smoking Jimson Weed
It used to be that being crazy meant something...now everbody's crazy.
--Charles Manson
You Are What You Know
You Are What You Do
Help Yourself
No More Secrets
No More Excuses
No More Limits
--Michael Hoy, Prop. of Loompanics Unlimited
"I cannot, yet I must. How do you calculate that?! At what point on the graph do ‘must’ and ‘cannot’ meet? Yet I must! But I cannot"
--Ro-Man XJ12, Robot Monster 1953
I love it that we made a film full of people being dismembered, and it keeps getting into these really snotty film festivals around the world, because that indicates to me that most people are fed up withthe machine. What they want is real art, real vision, real soul.
--Lloyd Kaufman, of Troma Studios, Interview in Eye Magazine, March 29, 2001
"Bunch together a group of people deliberately chosen for strong religious feelings, and you have a practical guarantee of dark morbidities expressed in crime, perversion, and insanity."
--HP Lovecraft, letter to Robert E. Howard 10/4/30
"Its asshole time!!!"
--Llyod Kaufman, President of Troma Entertainment
"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."
--Mahatma Gandhi