I'd applied to graduate school for playwriting, and I got rejected by every school. I felt that theatre was closed but that, when it came to film, the door was very slightly ajar. If I have any virtues, it's that I'm good at walking through doors that are slightly ajar.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes resilience and seizing opportunities, even when faced with rejection.
Greta Gerwig reflects on her experiences of rejection as she pursued her dreams in playwriting. Despite being turned away by graduate schools, she found an opening in the field of film, which symbolized hope and potential. Her ability to recognize and act on such slight opportunities highlights the importance of perseverance and adaptability in the face of adversity, suggesting that sometimes success comes from exploring alternatives rather than giving up.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming obstacles in creative fields.
I love movies, but sometimes I think it's better for actresses not to be total cinephiles. You have to be able to do the work at some point; you can't be totally starstruck. 'I can't believe it's Woody Allen!' You have to get past that.
Acting was always the first love, but a lot of people want to be actors, and my goal was, 'Come hell or high water, I will be a part of this world, however I can.' So that just led me to throwing myself into every aspect of narrative storytelling I could.
For Mike Mills, I learned that having dance parties and crying with your cast does not make you a weak director, it makes you a strong director.
You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn't enough, in the second half, you have to give what's left.
You hit a wall at some stage when you don't want it so bad, but you don't know when that's going to be - as far as competition or as far as health is concerned. Sometimes it's just natural. You just taste it, and you want it so bad that you find other gears.
Most dreams die a slow death. They're conceived in a moment of passion, with the prospect of endless possibility, but often languish and are not pursued with the same heartfelt intensity as when first born. Slowly, subtly, a dream becomes elusive and ephemeral. People who've lost their own dreams become pessimists and cynics. They feel like the time and devotion spent on chasing their dreams were wasted. The emotional scars last forever.
The chances of a person breaking through their own habits and sloth and limited mind to actually write something that gets out there and matters to people are slim.
What we focus on determines how we feel. And how we feel - our state of mind - powerfully influences our actions and interactions.
Men are often capable of greater things than they perform - They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.
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