“The bad things are some of my favorites," Peter said.”
Source: Tiger Lily
chickfactor.com - Issue 16, 2005
Context: Well, Nabokov is definitely my favorite author, though I feel strange calling him an "influence," since I can't trace the ways in which his writing may or may not have seeped into my own. But I also love William Faulkner, Thomas Pynchon, Kenneth Patchen, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Roth, Mark Helprin (who wrote a beautiful book called Winter's Tale), and Kurt Vonnegut. My favorite book of all time is The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.
“The bad things are some of my favorites," Peter said.”
Source: Tiger Lily
“This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.”
Source: The Princess Bride
“I am the only Unicorn there is? The Last?”
The Unicorn, after overhearing hunters declare her to be the last unicorn.
The Last Unicorn (1982 film)
Context: I am the only Unicorn there is? The Last? … That cannot be. Why would I be the last? What do men know? Because they have seen no unicorns for a while does not mean we have all vanished. We do not vanish. … There has never been a time without unicorns. We live forever! We are as old as the sky, old as the moon! We can be hunted, trapped; we can even be killed if we leave our forests, but we do not vanish. … Am I truly the last?
“I just want to know the last time you saw a unicorn and do you still believe in primeval forests.”
Living, Loving, and Learning (1982)
Context: I have a lot of things in my classes that I call "voluntarily mandatory." One of the things that is voluntarily mandatory is that every student come to see me in my office at least once. I cannot teach bodies. I can only relate to people. And so I say, "Come in, and we will sit across from one another. I don't want to talk about the texts or the class. We can do that another time. I just want to know the last time you saw a unicorn and do you still believe in primeval forests. And when you come, I am going to touch you — and if that bothers you, take your tranquilizer." It is amazing how many are intimidated by someone who says, "I want to touch you." I was raised in a large Italian family, as most of you know, and everybody hugs everybody all the time. On holidays everyone gets together, and it takes forty-five minutes just to say hello and forty-five minutes to say goodbye. Babies, parents, dogs — everyody's got to be loved! And so I have never suffered that existential feeling of not being. If someone can hug you and not go through you, you are. Try it sometime.
“The Radiohead record, The Bends is my all-time favorite record on the planet”
http://www.ink19.com/issues/august2002/interviews/tommyLee.html.
“My favorite book is my next one. I’m always hoping to make my next book my best one.”
“Here sits the Unicorn
In captivity;
His bright invulnerability
Captive at last”
The Unicorn in Captivity (1955)