"A ruthless, cynical, hated publisher is killed in a plane crash, and his ghost must wander restlessly unless someone sheds a tear for him."

Plot description of the film The Scoundrel (1935)

"You mourn, for it is proper to mourn.
But your grief serves you; you do not
become a slave to grief.

You bid the dead farewell,
and you continue."

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake; "Exiles"

"I never feel like I've done enough, because I'm alive."

Mary Gordon, author, on Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason

"Out to sea.
Out to sea.
And in the weightlessness of the deep,
where dreams are fulfilled,
Two wills come together to fulfill a wish,
Your gaze and my gaze
like an echo repeating wordlessly,
Farther out, farther out,
Beyond the other side of everything,
through blood and bones.
But I always wake up
and I always want to be dead,
Your hair forever caressing my lips."

Ramón Sampedro (Javier Bardem) in The Sea Inside

"There's only one thing worse than having a child die on you... for [the child] to want to die."

Grandfather in The Sea Inside

"I hate you too, Johnny.
I hate you so much that...
I think I'm going to die from it."

Gilda (Rita Hayworth), in Gilda

"Would it interest you to know how much I hate you, Johnny?
I hate you so much that...
I would destroy myself to take you down with me."

Gilda (Rita Hayworth), in Gilda

"Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow."

Langston Hughes, as quoted in The Little Big Book of Life, Welcome Books, 2003

Funeral Blues


"Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good."

W. H. Auden (used in the film Four Weddings And A Funeral)

"[...] suddenly I heard a shrill and dreadful scream. It came from the room into which Elizabeth had retired. As I heard it, the whole truth rushed into my mind, my arms dropped, the motion of every muscle and fibre was suspended; I could feel the blood trickling in my veins and tingling in the extremities of my limbs. This state lasted but for an instant; the scream was repeated, and I rushed into the room. Great God! Why did I not then expire! Why am I here to relate the destruction of the best hope and the purest creature on earth? She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair. Everywhere I turn I see the same figure—her bloodless arms and relaxed form flung by the murderer on its bridal bier. Could I behold this and live? Alas! Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated. For a moment only did I lose recollection; I fell senseless on the ground.

When I recovered I found myself surrounded by the people of the inn; their countenances expressed a breathless terror, but the horror of others appeared only as a mockery, a shadow of the feelings that oppressed me. I escaped from them to the room where lay the body of Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so dear, so worthy. She had been moved from the posture in which I had first beheld her, and now, as she lay, her head upon her arm and a handkerchief thrown across her face and neck, I might have supposed her asleep. I rushed towards her and embraced her with ardour, but the deadly languor and coldness of the limbs told me that what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished. The murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips. While I still hung over her in the agony of despair, I happened to look up. The windows of the room had before been darkened, and I felt a kind of panic on seeing the pale yellow light of the moon illuminate the chamber. The shutters had been thrown back, and with a sensation of horror not to be described, I saw at the open window a figure the most hideous and abhorred. A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer, as with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife."

From Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, on-line edition

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me

Tears For Fears' Mad World

"You're dressed to kill and guess who's dying?"

Roxy Music's Dance Away

"But have you noticed the slight curl at the end of Sam II's mouth, when he looks at you? It means that he didn't want you to name him Sam II, for one thing, and for two other things it means that he has a sawed-off in his left pant leg, and a baling hook in his right pant leg, and is ready to kill you with either one of them, given the opportunity. The father is taken aback. What he usually says, in such a confrontation, is "I changed your diapers for you, little snot." This is not the right thing to say. First, it is not true (mothers change nine diapers out of ten), and second, it instantly reminds Sam II of what he is mad about. He is mad about being small when you were big, but no, that's not it, he is mad about being helpless when you were powerful, but no, not that either, he is mad about being contingent when you were necessary, not quite it, he is insane because when he loved you, you didn't notice."

From The Dead Father, by Donald Barthelme, as quoted in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild

"In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. [...] He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter..."

From the cover of Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Anchor Books, 1997

"Those who are not afraid of death do not die."
(In reference to fear coupled with anger.)

From the film Fahrenheit 9/11

"... these are not just academic exercises; we're not analyzing the media on Mars or in the 18th century or something like that. We're dealing with real human beings, who are suffering and dying and being tortured and starving because of policies that we are involved in -- we as citizens of democratic societies are directly involved in -- and are responsible for. And what the media are doing, is ensuring that we do not act on our responsibilities and that the interests of power are served, not the needs of the suffering people, and not even the needs of the American people, who would be horrified if they realized the blood that is dripping from their hands because of the way they're allowing themselves to be diluted and manipulated by the system."

Noam Chomsky, in the documentary Manufacturing Consent

"We never know which will come first: tomorrow or the next life."

Tibetan awareness about death at every turn