Antes e depois:

- Josef von Sternberg, Shanghai express 
(Paramount Pictures, 1932; Marlene Dietrich por Don English);

- Queen, Queen II (EMI, 1974; Queen por Mick Rock).

SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL TONGUE, the card had said. New Age wit, Jessie remembered thinking at the time. The Victorians had Anthony Trollope; the Lost Generation had H.L. Mencken; we got stuck with dirty greeting cards and bumper-sticker witticisms like AS A MATTER OF FACT, I DO OWN THE ROAD.

Stephen King, Gerald’s game

Das notas presentes na compilação Amália Rodrigues (Movieplay, 1997): «O fado? – Mas o que é o fado? – Amália dixit: “O fado é saber que não se pode lutar contra aquilo que temos. É aquilo que não podemos mudar. É perguntar porquê e não saber porquê. É não deixar de perguntar e, ao mesmo tempo, saber que não tem resposta.”»

Há meses, estando eu a almoçar com uma amiga, ela comunicou-me ter doado o seu cadáver a uma faculdade. De início, considerei o gesto insólito, mas acabei por decidir fazer o mesmo, tendo-lhe pedido o telefone da instituição. Antes, falei com os meus filhos, prevenindo-os, com um ar radiante, que não teriam pagar o meu enterro, pois o doador fica liberto da despesa. Encolheram os ombros, declarando que fizesse o que me apetecesse. Foi assim que, em Dezembro de 2009, telefonei para a Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, a fim de proceder à doação cadavérica. Para meu espanto, a telefonista informou-me que só da parte da tarde se aceitavam declarações relativas à doação de cadáveres […].

Maria Filomena Mónica, A morte

Years ago, when I was young, I knew a man who was a doctor, and not a bad one either, but he didn't practise. He spent years burrowing away in the library of the British Museum and at long intervals produced a huge pseudo-scientific, pseudo-philosophical book that nobody read and that he had to publish at his own expense. He wrote four or five of them before he died and they were absolutely worthless. He had a son who wanted to go into the army, but there was no money to send him to Sandhurst, so he had to enlist. He was killed in the war. He had a daughter too. She was very pretty and I was rather taken with her. She went on the stage, but she had no talent and she traipsed around the provinces playing small parts in second-rate companies ata miserable salary. His wife, after years of dreary, sordid drudgery broke down in health and the girl had to come home and nurse her and take on the drudgery her mother no longer had the strength for. Wasted, thwarted lives and all to no purpose. It's a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called but few are chosen.

W. Somerset Maugham, The razor's edge

Antes e depois:

- Le Orme, Felona e Sorona (Philips, 1973);

- La Maschera di Cera, Le porte del domani (AMS, 2013).