The main thing about directing is: photograph the people's eyes.
John FordRead
Why, I hold fate Clasped in my fist, and could command the course Of time's eternal motion, hadst thou been One thought more steady than an ebbing sea.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the struggle of maintaining control over one's fate and emotions.
In this quote, John Ford illustrates a powerful sense of agency and control over destiny, suggesting that if the other person had been more steadfast in their emotions, the speaker could have commanded their fate like holding fate in their fist. It touches on the fragile nature of time and the impact of unwavering commitment in shaping life's direction.
In practice
In a motivational speech discussing the power of personal agency.
The main thing about directing is: photograph the people's eyes.
My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.
What was hard to suffer is sweet to remember.
I am convinced that the deepest desire within each of us is to be liberated from the controlling influences of our own psychic madness or patterns of fear. All other things—the disdain of ordinary life, the need to control others rather than be controlled, the craving for material goods as a means of security and protection against the winds of chaos—are external props that serve as substitutes for the real battle, which is the one waged within the individual soul.
Before his death, Rabbi Zusya said "In the coming world, they will not ask me: 'Why were you not Moses?' They will ask me: 'Why were you not Zusya?
War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always.
Strictly speaking, no activity and no industry is possible without a certain amount of violence, no matter how little. Even the very process of living is impossible without a certain amount of violence. What we have to do is to minimize it to the greatest extent possible.
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