I want to do what I can lend my talents to, but I want it to be as a human being and not as a two-dimensional character.
Gene WilderRead
What I learned from Mel Brooks was audacity - in performance as in life. Maybe you go too far, but try it.
Interpretation
Audacity encourages boldness in both performance and life, even at the risk of failure.
In this quote, Gene Wilder reflects on the invaluable lesson he learned from Mel Brooks about embracing audacity in life and performance. It suggests that taking risks, pushing boundaries, and being bold can lead to personal and artistic growth, even if it means occasionally overstepping limits. Wilder emphasizes the importance of courage in expression, advocating for the idea that one should not be afraid to attempt the extraordinary.
In practice
During a motivational speech about creativity, this quote can inspire others to embrace bold ideas.
I want to do what I can lend my talents to, but I want it to be as a human being and not as a two-dimensional character.
So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I'm doing that, then I snap out of it.
A lot of comic actors derive their main force from childish behavior. Most great comics are doing such silly things; you'd say, 'That's what a child would do.
What good is a character who's always winking at the audience to let them in on the secret?
I never used to believe in fate. I used to think you make your own life and then you call it fate. That's why I call it irony.
If my mother hadn't laughed at the funny things I did, I probably wouldn't be a comic actor. After she had her first heart attack, the doctor said, 'Try to make her laugh.' And that was the first time I tried to make anyone laugh.
Organisation can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgement.
Knowledge is power. If it is not applied properly to create, let there be no doubts, it will destroy.
From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.
Redemption basically is about holistic health, if you want to translate it into modern parlance. What I suggest - based on the Christian tradition but not often preached - is that you can't enter into the fullness of the Pascal mystery of the redemption unless there is a radical transformation of motivation within you.
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.
Perhaps the greatest mistake we can make, which causes loss of self-respect, is making the opinions of others more important than our own opinion of ourselves. You'll find no shortage of opinions directed at you. If you allow them to undermine your self-respect, you're seeking the respect of others over your own, and you're abdicating yourself.
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