“
We'll always have Paris.
”
”
Howard Koch
“
Once, when I was younger, I thought I could be someone else. I'd move to Casablanca, open a bar, and I'd meet Ingrid Bergman. Or more realistically - whether actually more realistic or not - I'd tune in on a better life, something more suited to my true self. Toward that end, I had to undergo training. I read The Greening of America, and I saw Easy Rider three times. But like a boat with a twisted rudder, I kept coming back to the same place. I wasn't anywhere. I was myself, waiting on the shore for me to return.
”
”
Haruki Murakami (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World)
“
They say no land remains to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored. But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting for me. I want to do things-- I want to walk the rain-soaked streets of London, and drink mint tea in Casablanca. I want to wander the wastelands of the Gobi desert and see a yak. I think my life's ambition is to see a yak. I want to bargain for trinkets in an Arab market in some distant, dusty land. There's so much. But, most of all, I want to do things that will mean something.
”
”
Lisa Ann Sandell (A Map of the Known World)
“
Two clichés make us laugh. A hundred cliches move us. For we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion.
(Casablanca, or, The Clichés Are Having a Ball)
”
”
Umberto Eco (Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers)
“
He always cared for her. He always loved her. He’s madly in love with her. She’s his Love, Actually. She’s his Casablanca. She’s the one he’d stop the bus for, the one he’d run through traffic for, the one he’d drive like a crazy man to the airport for and run through the terminal to stop the plane. Her name’s above the title for him. She’s the opening credit and the closing credit. She’s the love of his life.
”
”
Lauren Blakely (Caught Up in Us (Caught Up in Love, #1))
“
The backstreet cafe in Casablanca was for me a place of mystery, a place with a soul, a place with danger. There was a sense that the safety nets had been cut away, that each citizen walked upon the high wire of this, the real world. I longed not merely to travel through it, but to live in such a city.
”
”
Tahir Shah (The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca)
“
Whatever you do don't let anybody talk you into doing something about the way you look ever.
”
”
John Casablancas
“
Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine…
”
”
Rick Blaine
“
There can be few situations more fearful than breaking down in darkness on the highway leading to Casablanca. I have rarely felt quite so vulnerable or alone.
”
”
Tahir Shah (In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams)
“
What’s that?”
“I believe it is called a Vicodin.”
My mouth gapes open, and I darn near tear up. “You brought me cake and drugs? If you included Casablanca, I’d have to marry you.
”
”
Jennifer Harlow (Mind Over Monsters (F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad Investigation, #1))
“
For here was Casablanca, a far-flung outpost in a time of war. And here at the heart of the city, right under the sweep of the searchlights, was Rick’s Café Américain, where the beleaguered could assemble for the moment to gamble and drink and listen to music; to conspire, console, and most importantly, hope. And at the center of this oasis was Rick. As the Count’s friend had observed, the saloonkeeper’s cool response to Ugarte’s arrest and his instruction for the band to play on could suggest a certain indifference to the fates of men. But in setting upright the cocktail glass in the aftermath of the commotion, didn’t he also exhibit an essential faith that by the smallest of one’s actions one can restore some sense of order to the world?
”
”
Amor Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow)
“
It would be difficult to tell," Wulf said. "I've always been a romantic. I've seen Casablanca twice, and I sat through the entire ordeal of Titanic".
"Didn't you enjoy Titanic?"
"I was relieved when the ship went down".
”
”
Janet Evanovich (Wicked Business (Lizzy & Diesel, #2))
“
It’s like an inner struggle for me, between saying I don’t give a shit and trying to make it work. You want to do the right thing, but I’m sick of people thinking I’m difficult.
”
”
Julian Casablancas
“
إذا إنزكمت القاهرة عطست بغداد و سعلت الدار البيضاء و دعت لنا بالشفاء الرياض
”
”
أنيس منصور (قل لي يا أستاذ)
“
I watched as Humphrey Bogart’s character used beans as a metaphor for the relative unimportance in the wider world of his relationship with Ingrid Bergman’s character, and chose logic and decency ahead of his selfish emotional desires. The quandary and resulting decision made for an engrossing film. But this was not what people cried about. They were in love and could not be together. I repeated this statement to myself, trying to force an emotional reaction. I couldn’t. I didn’t care. I had enough problems of my own.
”
”
Graeme Simsion (The Rosie Project (Don Tillman, #1))
“
Falling in love: how does it work? Over the years we gather the odd clue, but nothing adds up. We’d like to think we have a picture of our future partner projected in our mind, all their qualities recorded as if on film, and we just search the planet for that person until we find them, sitting in Casablanca waiting to be recognised. But in reality our love lives are blown around by career and coincidence, not to mention lack of nerve on given occasions, and we never have respectable reasons for anything until we have to make them up afterwards for the benefit of our curious friends.
”
”
Michel Faber (Some Rain Must Fall: And Other Stories)
“
Ugarte: You despise me, don't you?
Rick: If I gave you any thought I probably would.
”
”
Julius J. Epstein
“
Writers of fiction embellish reality almost without knowing it.
”
”
Aljean Harmetz (Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca--Bogart, Bergman, and World War II)
“
Ayahku selalu bilang, jodoh itu seperti sepatu. Sejak awal dibuat, sudah ditentukan pasangannya. Itulah jodoh sejati. Jodoh yang hanya akan dipisahkan oleh maut.
”
”
Dahlian (Casablanca: Forget Me Not)
“
Don’t go to Casablanca expecting it to be like the film. In fact, if you’re not too busy, and your schedule allows it, don’t go to Casablanca at all.
”
”
Hugh Laurie (The Gun Seller)
“
This could be the start of a beautiful friendship." - Claude Rains to Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca
”
”
Claude Rains to Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca
“
Her favorite animal was sea lions. Mine was giraffes. Her favorite movie was Casablanca, which she said was old and black-and-white and very romantic. She tried to tell me what it was about, but it all sounded about as much fun as eating burned bread crusts.
”
”
Lisa Graff (Umbrella Summer)
“
In the West we are driven by an extreme form of guilt -- if you are not seen to be working like a dog, you're perceived as being slothful.
”
”
Tahir Shah (The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca)
“
Kamu pernah denger filosofi lilin? Lilin selalu menerangi sekitarnya, tetapi dia menghancurkan dirinya sendiri. Kamu mau seperti itu?
”
”
Dahlian (Casablanca: Forget Me Not)
“
We may yearn for rustic detail and old-world charm, but those who have it set their minds on vinyl wallpaper, fitted carpets and all mod cons.
”
”
Tahir Shah (The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca)
“
You can't move on until you let go of the past, bukan?
”
”
Dahlian (Casablanca: Forget Me Not)
“
Menurut aku, yang penting bukan seberapa cepat kita menikah, tapi seberapa lama kita bisa mempertahankan pernikahan.
”
”
Dahlian (Casablanca: Forget Me Not)
“
Hi," I said, IN SCINTILLATING DIALOGUE REMINISCENT OF THE CLASSIC MOVIE CASABLANCA.
”
”
Nick Lake (Whisper to Me)
“
I was shocked. A dying word, “shocked.” Few people have been able to use it well since Claude Rains so famously said, “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here,” as he pocketed his winnings in Casablanca. But it’s the only word for excitement and alarm of this intensity.
”
”
David Denby (Great Books)
“
Because what could be more Casablanca? Suddenly Harlow saw that what she’d always wanted was a man of principle. A man of action. A domestic terrorist. Every girl’s dream, if she can’t have a vampire.
”
”
Karen Joy Fowler (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves)
“
As the man was bundled into an armoured police van, he turned and shouted: ‘Don’t waste your life following others! Be individual! Live your dreams!’
I stood there thinking. He was right. Ours is a society of followers, trapped by an island mentality.
”
”
Tahir Shah (The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca)
“
Two clichés make us laugh,” writes Umberto Eco in his essay on Casablanca, “but a hundred clichés move us because we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, celebrating a reunion.” Just
”
”
Noah Isenberg (We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie: The Legend and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Film)
“
Popular film misquotes. “Play it again, Sam”: Casablanca, allegedly, except neither Bogie nor Bergman ever said it. “He’s alive”: Frankenstein doesn’t gender his monster; cruelly, it’s just “It’s alive.” “Elementary, my dear Watson” does crop up in the first Holmes film of the talkie era, but appears nowhere in the Conan Doyle canon.
”
”
A.J. Finn (The Woman in the Window)
“
Moroccan traffic isn't like normal traffic. It's armed combat, a war of wills, in which only the very bravest have a chance to survive.
”
”
Tahir Shah (The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca)
“
In Morocco," said Osman, "word spreads like a fire tearing through the depths of Hell.
”
”
Tahir Shah (The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca)
“
As students of the silver screen recall, Bogart's admonition about future regret led Bergman to board the plane and fly away with her husband. Had she stayed with Bogey in Casablanca, she would probably have felt just fine. Not right away, perhaps, but soon, and for the rest of her life.
”
”
Daniel Todd Gilbert (Stumbling on Happiness)
“
An hour may destroy what an age was building.
”
”
Jordan Hoechlin
“
Semuanya fifty-fifty. Bisa ya, bisa juga tidak. Hidup selalu penuh risiko. Dan, seorang pemenang adalah orang yang berani mengambil risiko, bukan?
”
”
Dahlian (Casablanca: Forget Me Not)
“
But if we leave out some of the important bits of the truth – or choose to ignore them – then surely we are living a lie? And that is no way to live at all, is it?
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
Of all the gin joints in the world, she had to walk into mine
Casablanca
”
”
Humphrey Bogart
“
sum up Casablanca in just four clipped, declarative sentences: “Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back again. Boy gives up girl for humanity’s sake.
”
”
Noah Isenberg (We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie: The Legend and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Film)
“
Hassan can watch, aghast, as databanks at NASDAQ graph hard data and chart a NASDAQ crash - a sharp fall that alarms staff at a Manhattan bank. Hassan acts fast, ransacks cashbags at a mad dash, and grabs what bank drafts a bank branch at Casablanca can cash: marks, rands and bahts. Hassan asks that an adman draft a want ad that can hawk what canvas art Hassan has (a Cranach, a Cassatt and a Chagall).
”
”
Christian Bök (Eunoia)
“
POEM FOR SOUKAÏNA”
****
To tell of my new Moroccan Love,
Ô, I court her everyday.
But just as a pearl in the mud is a pearl,
So is my Love just an Arab girl…
in that I offer her constant, loving woos,
but she’ll ask me in return that I give her flooze*.
That’s when I kiss her and shrug, and I say, “Someday.”
And she gives me her love free anyway.
* * *
Ô, my Love is a child of the souks.
In Casablanca born.
A gypsy thief, “Soukaïna” named.
We met in the souks of Marrakech,
It was here my heart she tamed.
Ô, she came at nineteen to Marrakech,
In search of wild fun.
And she lived in Marrakech seven years,
Before my heart she won.
”
”
Roman Payne
“
When it grew cold enough to shut the doors, and have fire at night, first thing after supper all of us helped clear the table, then we took our slates and books and learned our lessons for the next day, and then father lined us against the wall, all in a row from Laddie down, and he pronounced words—easy ones that divided into syllables nicely, for me, harder for May, and so up until I might sit down. For Laddie, May and Leon he used the geography, the Bible, Roland's history, the Christian Advocate, and the Agriculturist. My, but he had them so they could spell! After that, as memory tests, all of us recited our reading lesson for the next day, especially the poetry pieces. I knew most of them, from hearing the big folks repeat them so often and practise the proper way to read them. I could do "Rienzi's Address to the Romans," "Casablanca," "Gray's Elegy," or "Mark Antony's Speech," but best of all, I liked "Lines to a Water-fowl." When he was tired, if it were not bedtime yet, all of us, boys too, sewed rags for carpet and rugs. Laddie braided corn husks for the kitchen and outside door mats, and they were pretty, and "very useful too," like the dog that got his head patted in McGuffey's Second.
”
”
Gene Stratton-Porter (Laddie: A True Blue Story)
“
Well, semua orang pasti punya ketakutan saat akan menghadapi perubahan besar dalam hidup. Kecemasan pada sanggup atau tidaknya kita menjalani, itu soal biasa. Tapi, membayangkan kita akan menjalani hidup bersama orang yang kita cintai, biasanya membuat kita bisa melawan ketakuran itu.
”
”
Dahlian (Casablanca: Forget Me Not)
“
Two could be complete with out the rest of the world
”
”
Julian Casablancas
“
which was a bit disconcerting, but at
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
I couldn’t believe that something could look so very ordinary and unremarkable on the outside and hide such a beautiful treasure within.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
even when the tangled web of life and love and loss and grief becomes too much to bear, it’s still possible to keep on living.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
kindness is one of the most important things in the world but a lot of people seem to have forgotten that nowadays.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
The ocean is big enough to take your grief and keep it safe for you, freeing up space in your heart for other things.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
Why not try it all,
If you only remember it once
”
”
Julian Casablancas
“
Aku tahu, cinta memang nggak selalu bisa menyelesaikan masalah, tetapi cinta yang dalam membuat kita saling mendukung di masa-masa sulit.
”
”
Dahlian (Casablanca: Forget Me Not)
“
I have my own problems, that’s for sure, but that still shouldn’t stop me from trying to help those whose problems are even greater than mine.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
I don’t know if I would ever want to be married, unless the man was very kind like my papa or Felix. I think I’d probably rather have animals instead, like Josephine Baker.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
Je vous en prie, Madame.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
Adhhab bisalam. Go in peace,
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
Kamu nggak pernah diajari untuk tersenyum?”
“Aku diajari untuk berhemat.”
Alis Laz terangkat mendengar jawaban Vanda. “Maksudmu?”
“Aku nggak perlu menghambur-hamburkan senyum. Apalagi pada orang asing.
”
”
Dahlian (Casablanca: Forget Me Not)
“
You know, I used to think of myself as a tiny drop in the ocean of life. But I’ve come to see that I am not a drop in the ocean: I’m an entire ocean in one tiny drop. There is no answer to your question, Zoe. Some things are impossible to move on from – instead, you have to find a way to live with them. The secret is to open your heart, even as it breaks. Because that’s when you discover that you have the capacity to contain it all – the pain and the love, the dark and the light. Just like the ocean. Finding the strength to do so can be quite a challenge, and it takes time. But, in the end, it’s facing up to the truth that will set you free.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
Some things are impossible to move on from – instead, you have to find a way to live with them. The secret is to open your heart, even as it breaks. Because that’s when you discover that you have the capacity to contain it all – the pain and the love, the dark and the light. Just like the ocean. Finding the strength to do so can be quite a challenge, and it takes time. But, in the end, it’s facing up to the truth that will set you free.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
Eloise, look, you’ll be disappointed, okay? Love disappoints. It can’t help itself. That’s why … I don’t know, that’s why Ingrid Bergman gets on the plane and leaves Casablanca, or Maude takes all those sleeping pills at the end of Harold and Maude. But what are we supposed to do? Stop trying? Preemptively say fuck it because we know everything invariably ends? That’s bullshit. You hear me? Bullshit. Love may disappoint, but that doesn’t absolve us from the duty of loving. Of trying to love.
”
”
Grant Ginder (The People We Hate at the Wedding)
“
Le Boucher, the early Claude Chabrol that Hitch, according to lore, wished he’d directed. Dark Passage, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall—a San Francisco valentine, all velveteen with fog, and antecedent to any movie in which a character goes under the knife to disguise himself. Niagara, starring Marilyn Monroe; Charade, starring Audrey Hepburn; Sudden Fear!, starring Joan Crawford’s eyebrows. Wait Until Dark: Hepburn again, a blind woman stranded in her basement apartment. I’d go berserk in a basement apartment. Now, movies that postdate Hitch: The Vanishing, with its sucker-punch finale. Frantic, Polanski’s ode to the master. Side Effects, which begins as a Big Pharma screed before slithering like an eel into another genre altogether. Okay. Popular film misquotes. “Play it again, Sam”: Casablanca, allegedly, except neither Bogie nor Bergman ever said it. “He’s alive”: Frankenstein doesn’t gender his monster; cruelly, it’s just “It’s alive.” “Elementary, my dear Watson” does crop up in the first Holmes film of the talkie era, but appears nowhere in the Conan Doyle canon.
”
”
A.J. Finn (The Woman in the Window)
“
suddenly I saw that it didn’t matter which it was or which particular version of God you believed in because faith was something deeper and stronger, something like that music drawn from the rocks pulsing through my body, more powerful than any words written down by mankind.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
Other disappointments went unlisted. Neither Roosevelt nor Churchill had been effusive in his praise at Casablanca, and Eisenhower felt unappreciated. “His work and leadership had been taken rather for granted,” Butcher wrote on January 17. The “absence of clear-cut words of thanks from the president or prime minister showed that they had their noses to the political winds.” Harry Hopkins told Butcher at Casablanca that taking Tunisia would prove Eisenhower “one of the world’s greatest generals,” but without such a victory his fate was uncertain. “Such is the life of generals,” Butcher mused.
”
”
Rick Atkinson (An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943)
“
She sees that your heart is filled with grief. You need to go to the ocean. Write the names of the things you’ve lost on stones you will find there and then cast them away into the waters. The ocean is big enough to take your grief and keep it safe for you, freeing up space in your heart for other things.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
We stood in the wings together, side by side. Reed's mouth was still agape.
"It makes sense when you think about it," I mused. "You get two people together who have you-know-what, and sparks are going to fly."
Reed's cue was about to start. He pointed at me and said, "Tonight. There's a party. And we're going to talk."
"Yes"
"Because this is crazy."
"Totally."
"Okay. Well." He tugged a strand of my hair. "Good luck out there."
"You're not supposed to say that."
"Fine. How about..." He squinted at me. "Here's looking at you kid."
The smile melted off my face. "What did you say?"
"It's a line. From a movie." He shrugged and burst onto the stage with a hee-haw.
It was a line. From Casablanca. The same line KARL had said to me when I was Elsa. The same like Karl didn't recognize when I said it to him as Floressa. Which meant... nothing. Right? Lots of people know that line. Just because Reed said it, and Reed was a sub, it didn't mean he was... he was...
"You're on," the stage manager whispered.
I stumbled onto the stage. The lights were too bright. The theater was packed. Reed gave me a quick, crooked smile, and I knew.
My crush on Karl was less complicated than I thought, because it wasn't Karl I'd been with that day in the garden.
Now my crush on Reed... ?
THAT was a scandal all on its own.
”
”
Lindsey Leavitt (The Royal Treatment (Princess for Hire, #2))
“
Can we really imagine how it must feel to be so afraid of what lies behind you that you are prepared to throw yourself headlong into an unknown that is going to be filled with danger and loneliness? Leaving behind your family and your culture and seeking something better in a land where you are not welcome and you are not understood?
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
imagined I was in a vast cathedral or mosque or synagogue and suddenly I saw that it didn’t matter which it was or which particular version of God you believed in because faith was something deeper and stronger, something like that music drawn from the rocks pulsing through my body, more powerful than any words written down by mankind.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
You know who they wanted to play Rick?" Aaron asked.
I shook my head. Why was I so tense? Didn't Aaron's question prove that we were just a couple of old-movie fans swapping Hollywood trivia gossip?
"Ronald Reagan," said Aaron.
"The worst president ever," I said.
"You weren't born yet," he said.
"What difference does that make?" I said.
”
”
Francine Prose (Goldengrove)
“
Once, when I was younger, I thought I could be someone else. I'd move to Casablanca, open a bar, and I'd meet Ingrid Bergman. Or more realistically - whether actually more realistic or not - I'd tune in on a better life, something more suited to my true self. Toward that end, I had to undergo training. I read The Greening of America, and I saw Easy Rider three times. But like a boat with a twisted rudder, I kept coming back to the same place. I wasn't going anywhere. I was myself, waiting on the shore for me to return. Was that so depressing? Who knows? Maybe that was 'despair.' What Turgenev called 'disillusionment.' Or Dostoevsky, 'hell.' Or Somerset Maugham, 'reality.' Whatever the label, I figured it was me.
”
”
Haruki Murakami (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World)
“
Some things are impossible to move on from – instead, you have to find a way to live with them. The secret is to open your heart, even as it breaks. Because that’s when you discover that you have the capacity to contain it all – the pain and the love, the dark and the light. Just like the ocean. Finding the strength to do so can be quite a challenge, and it takes time. But,
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
You need to go to the ocean. Write the names of the things you’ve lost on stones you will find there and then cast them away into the waters. The ocean is big enough to take your grief and keep it safe for you, freeing up space in your heart for other things. The dreamseller says this is an important lesson for you to learn now and you must remember it. It will help you later in life.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
the world was very much younger, the waters of the sea were sweet and fresh. The sea itself was very proud of this and it grew too arrogant. It decided it would flood the whole world. But a tiny mosquito saw this and began to drink the sea. It drank and drank until every drop of water was gone and it was drinking sand. Then it threw up all the water again. And because the smallest creature in the world had drunk it up and humbled it, the sea became calm. From that time on, the waters of the sea have been salty since they’ve passed through the stomach of a mosquito.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)
“
In September 1941, a set of hearings was convened by a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on War Propaganda, chaired by Idaho Democrat Senator D. Worth Clark. The hearings were designed to address a resolution sponsored by two hard-nosed isolationist senators, Republican Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota and Democrat Bennett Champ Clark of Missouri, calling for “an investigation of any propaganda disseminated by motion pictures and radio or any other activity of the motion picture industry to influence public opinion in the direction of participation of the United States in the present European war.
”
”
Noah Isenberg (We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie: The Legend and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Film)
“
I decided to begin with romantic films specifically mentioned by Rosie. There were four: Casablanca, The Bridges of Madison County, When Harry Met Sally, and An Affair to Remember. I added To Kill a Mockingbird and The Big Country for Gregory Peck, whom Rosie had cited as the sexiest man ever. It took a full week to watch all six, including time for pausing the DVD player and taking notes. The films were incredibly useful but also highly challenging. The emotional dynamics were so complex! I persevered, drawing on movies recommended by Claudia about male-female relationships with both happy and unhappy outcomes. I watched Hitch, Gone with the Wind, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Annie Hall, Notting Hill, Love Actually, and Fatal Attraction. Claudia also suggested I watch As Good as It Gets, “just for fun.” Although her advice was to use it as an example of what not to do, I was impressed that the Jack Nicholson character handled a jacket problem with more finesse than I had. It was also encouraging that, despite serious social incompetence, a significant difference in age between him and the Helen Hunt character, probable multiple psychiatric disorders, and a level of intolerance far more severe than mine, he succeeded in winning the love of the woman in the end. An excellent choice by Claudia.
”
”
Graeme Simsion (The Rosie Project (Don Tillman, #1))
“
What’s an IPO, exactly? A company decides it wants to “float” part of its equity on the public markets, allowing employees and founders to sell private shares to pay them off for years of service, as well as sell shares out of the corporate treasury to have some money in the bank. Large investment banks (such as my former employer Goldman Sachs) form what’s called a “syndicate” (“mafia” might be a better term) wherein they offer to effectively buy those shares from Facebook, and then sell them into the capital markets, usually by pushing it via their sales force onto wealthy clients or institutional investors. That syndicate either guarantees a price (“firm commitment”) or promises to get the best price it can (“best effort”). In the former case, the bank is taking real execution risk, and stands to lose money if it doesn’t engineer a “pop” in the stock on opening day. To mitigate the risk, the bank convinces the offering company to expect a lower price, while simultaneously jacking up what real price the market will bear with a zealous sales pitch to the market’s deepest pockets. Thus, it is absolutely jejune to think that a stock’s rise on opening day is due to clamoring and unexpected interest. Similar to Captain Renault in Casablanca, Wall Street bankers are shocked—shocked!—that there should be such a large and positive price dislocation in the market they just rigged.
”
”
Antonio García Martínez (Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley)
“
Kenza’s Recipe for Ghoribas: (Makes about 50 small cookies) 2 eggs plus 1 separated egg ½ a tea glass of sugar ½ a tea glass of melted butter 3 large spoonfuls of honey 4 tea glasses of flour (Sift the flour with 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar) A pinch of salt Zest of an orange In a big mixing bowl beat together the 2 eggs plus the white of the separated egg (keep the yolk aside for later) and the sugar. Add the butter, honey and orange zest and beat some more. Then carefully mix in the sifted flour until the cookie dough comes together, soft enough to be rolled into little balls between your hands. Put the balls of dough on to a buttered tray and brush with the beaten egg yolk. Bake in the oven for 10–15 minutes. Josie’s Journal – Tuesday 29th April, 1941 Maman had organised a meeting at our house this morning for ladies who were interested in supporting the work of the Committee for Assistance of Foreign Refugees.
”
”
Fiona Valpy (The Storyteller of Casablanca)