Rejection is part of the business. For me, rejection is never failure. Failure is giving up.
-- Eli Roth, directorOne of our grandchildren told me the other day that he knew why I didn't like "White Chicks." It was, he said, "because you're not a kid. If you were a kid, you'd know how funny it was." "Yes," I said, "no doubt you're right. But if you were me, you'd know how bad it was." "But I'm not you," he said. "No, but you will be someday," I said. "I started out as a kid, and look how far I've come."
-- Roger Ebert, movie critic
Painting is the least of [any art form that lends itself particularly well to fitting in between movie shoots], but when I know we're in one location for quite a while, I can do a little bit. Sometimes you don't have the energy, and it's better if you lie down and take a 10-minute nap, so you won't be deadweight the rest of the afternoon. That's a good idea if you're in a state of tiredness already, which we were for most of the last half of Lord Of The Rings. And for me, a place where I would feel calm would be to look at photographs, or maybe take some, paint a little bit, or re-write something. You can get that from reading a book, too. A lot of places we were in New Zealand, we'd be by these rivers and beautiful lakes, in really wild places, and I would just grab my backpack and fishing rod and go take in the silence, instead of waiting for the next shoot. It was really getting away from people, is what it comes down to, one way or another. Because you're around people all the time, and even though it's pleasant to sit and break bread, it's all these voices, and it's nice to walk away, go fishing, or just look around, take a picture or whatnot. Those are, ideally, restful moments, even if they're active. When I'm writing or drawing something, or cleaning my camera, or taking a picture, or thinking about it, looking out the window or walking around the woods, then, when I come back to work, I'm refreshed and mentally ready for the whole second half of the day.
-- Viggo Mortensen, actor, in an interview with the Onion A. V. Club
Education gets very high priority in India. Achievements for teenagers in India means academic achievements. Most Hindus are brought up worshipping the Goddess of learning. While this may mean nothing on the surface, it is my belief that subliminally, it gives importance to education by raising it to a divine level. Science and math fascinate a lot of kids. It is not a subculture. It is mainstream culture out in India. Pursuing science is the #1 choice. Liberal arts and commerce related streams get lower priority in India. Science and those pursuing science get a lot of respect. Consider this fact. When a radio channel in Britain conducted a poll to determine who the greatest Briton was, the British voted for Diana. Indians voted for Newton. I also see a lot of hostility everywhere in USA towards Indians. I feel sad for a lot of Americans but it is wrong to distinguish people by their race and brand them as people stealing jobs. For me, there is only one human race and I hope no individual has to suffer. I am dismayed to see that those who were extolling the virtues of free-market have suddenly decided that Stalinist ideas are the best! Such double standards are unacceptable.
-- h1b_indian, in a Slash Dot posting
If you're going to call it "I Told You So", you're not saying anything new, and that's a good sign that it's time to move on.
Anger is a distraction, regret a waste of time.
-- Dennis Maher, exoneree
If I may say so, life is a game, and there's so much to do and so few turns. I think there are so many great things to do in life, and one of the really exciting aspects is that you can't do them all and you have the rich choice of what you want to do next -- saying 'yes' to one thing means saying 'no' to another thing.
-- Reiner Knizia, board game designer
We want total freedom in our fantasy game world to do anything, but we forget that the essence of a game is the limitations of its world. The game of chess is a classic example of a severely limited playfield, but with mind-blowing intrigue. We face the freedom of the real world every day, but find it more interesting to play on our computer screens, because it holds the promise of a less infinite world that can be conquered.
-- Eugene Jarvis, Robotron and Defender video game creator.
If you are just doing it for the money, and you can't get even get yourself psyched about your project, then it's time to move on to something fresh. Why waste irreplaceable time in life just making money, when the alternative is having some fun exploring the unknown? Money can be made later, but time is lost forever.
-- Eugene Jarvis, Robotron and Defender video game creator.
I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating. I don't care if it's a book, a film, a painting, a dance, a piece of theater, a piece of music.... Anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us, I think this world would be unlivable without art and I thank you. That includes the Academy, that includes my fellow nominees here tonight. Thank you for inspiring me.
-- Steven Soderbergh, on winning the Oscar for the movie Traffic
My parents, they chide me, oh they will not agree
Saying that me and my false love, married should never be
Oh let them deprive me, or let them do what they will
While there's breath in my body
She's the one I love still.-- Silly Wizard
When I say I don't like nastolgia, I think the problem is that a lot of people live and surround themselves with things that really have no meaning to them. You go to somebody's home and see traditional furniture that is 25 years old and you wonder how on earth there's a 250-year-old-looking couch when the occupant is a 26-year-old person who goes outside with baggy pants and uses a skateboard with phenominal technology, or goes to play tennis using a super-light aerospace technology racket, or wears the latest-technology running shoes, or buys a new car with the expectation that it incorporates the latest technology. Why, when you move into your domestic environment, do you have a couch that looks like your great grandmother's? But it's not; it's a cheaply made piece of garbage anyway. I was always interested in trying to shift all that.
-- Karim Rashid
...Scott has been spending too much time staring into his computer monitor without his sunglasses on.
-- Dave Sim
Unrequited love: it's fantastic. 'Cause it never has to change, it never has to grow up, and it never has to die.
-- Vince, Queer As Folk
Distance never separates
two hearts that really care
For memory spans the miles
and, in seconds, we are there.
That friends remain a part of us
wherever we may go.
So we can visit anytime,
no matter when or where,
For distance never separates
two hearts that really care.-- Emily Matthews
Oh don't the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and none goes wrong,
And isn't your life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at!People often find it easier to be a result of the past than a cause of the future.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
--G.K. Chesterton
I am a very competitive person but it is sometimes misunderstood. I'm not really trying to beat other people. Of course I like to win because that's better than losing, but really what I am looking for is someone who will push me to my own limits. Like in tennis, it's very frustrating to play someone way above or below your own level.
-- Julie Bell
He has no hope who never had a fear.
-- William Cowper (1731-1800)
Every morning it's important to get up--get up and do something. You can't be a victim if you're busy and doing something for yourself. Get up. Say hello to the day. Say 'I'm here. I'm alive. I'm present.' And then go on about whatever happens.
-- Christian Haren
'Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
After all, it is the lover rather than the loved one who has the heartwarming experiences. The loved one is at most a stimulus and often just a lucky beneficiary. The lover is the artist who takes that stimulus and paints awe or celebration out of it. Lovers do not need to have their value affirmed by others--they know the value of their lives through their loving experiences.
-- The Art and Practice of Loving
, Frank Andrews, Ph.D.
You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.
-- Mary Pickford
It's harder to love heaven than it is to hate hell.
-- Michael Kroll
There was a time when I thought computer games could represent a truly original interactive medium, however, with the takeover by big guys from Hollywood and corporate America, it looks like another cultural wasteland (like films and TV) devoted to crass consumer values. But they pay well!
-- Dani Bunten Berry, creator of the classic video game M.U.L.E.
Seeing it once is better than hearing about it a hundred times.
-- Chinese saying, quoted by Chinese President Jiang Zemin
If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.
-- Marcus Garvey
Danger may motivate these men, but engineers make it possible.
-- Superplanes, TLC
Things that get done are a matter of politics. Things that get done well are a matter of engineering.
-- Vitas Povilaitis, April 12, 1996
Unix itself is proof that what the industry wants (for to be commercially successful) is not to get things done well, but to get things done period. Nobody cares about what you do--they care about what you demonstrate.
-- Vitas Povilaitis, April 12, 1996
All my life I've been my own person. The choices I've made I made of my own free will. I was never held in thrall by anyone nor anything, not even the Queen of Darkness herself. Bow to others in reverence and respect, but never in slavery, nephew.
-- Raistlin Mejere, Dragonlance Tales, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
I come from a culture where the compensation came because one's work was recognized as advancing civilization...mostly it was that people had done good work, so you figured they deserved a continuing job. If I were to consider a strategy of becoming rich, it would be so I could support people who need support, who I consider are doing things for the future...
I used to think about infinity, but I had to stop.
-- Vitas Povilaitis
Contents by Vitas Povilaitis
email to vitas@GracefulBoot.com