Predictions:
Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances.
Studio official about Fred Astaire's screen test
We don't like the sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.
Decca Records executive to the Beatles in 1962
Tully: Excuse me, who are you?
Henry: Oh, the eternal question. The eternal answer - I don't know.
Henry: This is a world where everybody's got to do something. You know, somebody laid down this rule that everybody's got to do something, they got to be something. You know, a dentist, a glider pilot, a narc, a janitor, a preacher, all that. Sometimes I just get tired of thinking of all the things that I don't want to do, all the things that I don't want to be, all the places that I don't want to go. Like India, or get my teeth cleaned, save the whale, all that, I don't understand that.
Jim: You're not supposed to think about it. I think the whole trick is, not to think about it.
Conversations in the movie Barfly, with Mickey Rourke. Written by Charles Bukowski
Graffiti found at various locations:
There was a time when I thought I could change the world.
Sneaky Dee's, Bloor & Bathurst, Toronto, Ont.
I am here for the world. Not for you.
Imperial Public Library & Tavern, Toronto, Ont.
Dyslexics against drugs. Just say ON!
Dyslexics untie!
Sneaky Dee's, Davisville & Yonge, Toronto, Ont.
If one sets aside time for a business appointment or shopping expedition, that time is accepted as inviolable. But if one says, "I cannot come because that is my hour to be alone," one is considered rude, egotistical or strange. What a commentary on our civilization.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Last night I was taken by the words put in a play
By a young man from Three Rivers I was caught and swept away.
In a theatre half empty, knots of people getting cold
And wanting not to stay.
Oh, the players were a picture that could bring you to your feet
And they spoke of Northern beauty and the lines were so complete.
But applause was thin and hollow, and the writer's face was old,
I watched him walk away.
The empty seats all spoke of some old movie on TV
The tired past of Hollywood and Rome,
Which years away and North has brought a writer to his knees,
How easy it's become to stay at home.
In a tiny western gallery was a painter's one-man show
The first time for his children - how he'd loved to watch them grow.
He was proud that they were part of him, they needed to be sold
So he could paint again.
All the faces that he painted spoke of laughter, love and sight.
They were real enough to touch, they were strong and full of light
And I bought his one self-portrait, and the only one that sold.
He'll never paint again.
The crowded walls all spoke of some old movie on TV
The tired past of Hollywood and Rome,
Which years away and North has brought the painter to his knees,
How easy it's become to stay at home.
Another artist lost in some old movie on TV
The tired past of Hollywood and Rome,
Which years away and North has brought the painter to his knees,
What he could be we never would have known
How easy it's become to stay at home.
"How Easy It's Become", Unreleased, 1975, Stan Rogers.
Apparently written for something called "The Great Canadian Culture
Hunt."