“We all have control over what kind of person we are. Each word that comes out, each action that we take, defines us.”
“My sister said Mary Elizabeth is suffering from low self-esteem, but I told her that she said the same thing about Sam back in November when she started dating Craig, and Sam is completely different. Everything can t be low self-esteem, can it? My sister tried to clarify things. She said that by introducing me to all these great things, Mary Elizabeth gained a superior position that she wouldn t need if she was confident about herself. She also said that people who try to control situations all the time are afraid that if they don t, nothing will work out the way they want.”
“Don t be a creation of circumstances, create your dreams, take full control of your destiny.”
“The real problem is I m greedy. I want complete, utter, unceasing bliss. But I don t want to fall into it either. If happiness were money I wouldn t want to win the lottery. I want to accomplish it, urn it as John Houseman would say. I want it to be an achievement because I want to be in control of my life. I don t want things to happen to me, I want them to happen because of me. Power I want. I want to feel the way I do when I stretch a new canvas and I want to feel that way all the time. the blank canvas fills me with the power of imminent creation. I m its god an it always bends to my will and when I m done I know, inside, that it s markedly better than what almost all of my similarly-engaged others can achieve. That s happiness.”
“Challenge who you can be, don t let fate control your future. Fate can come to rule your life if you don t decide for yourselves exactly what you want. It fills in the bits like a mischievous mistress.”
“Love. It seemed impossible that she could love him, but she was so deep in him there was really nowhere to go but further in. So this is what love was. Uncontrollable. Consuming. But so irresistible you wanted to be consumed.”
“Sholem [a painter] was saying that freedom, for him, is having the technical facility to be able to execute whatever he wants, just whatever image he has in his mind. But that s not freedom! That s control, or power. Whereas I think Margaux understands freedom to be the freedom to take risks, the freedom to do something bad or appear foolish. To not recognize that difference is a pretty big thing. [...] It s like with improv, Misha said. True improv is about surprising yourself--but most people won t improvise truthfully. They re afraid. What they do is pull from their bag of tricks. They take what they already know how to do and apply it to the present situation. But that s cheating! And cheating s bad for an artist. It s bad in life--but it s really bad in art. -p.20-1, How Should A Person Be”
“The mind is powerful, and you have more control than you think.”
“What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural loving and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare?”
“You can t possibly judge your ability to control something until you ve experienced the extremes of its capabilities. Do you understand?”
“I have heard that, with some persons, temperance – that is, moderation – is almost impossible; and if abstinence be an evil (which some have doubted), no one will deny that excess is a greater. Some parents have entirely prohibited their children from tasting intoxicating liquors; but a parent’s authority cannot last for ever; children are naturally prone to hanker after forbidden things; and a child, in such a case, would be likely to have a strong curiosity to taste, and try the effect of what has been so lauded and enjoyed by others, so strictly forbidden to himself – which curiosity would generally be gratified on the first convenient opportunity; and the restraint once broken, serious consequences might ensue.”
“...I retreat into my fictional world where everything makes sense - but even there I can t even control what people do...”
“And no wonder; for the new technique of subliminal projection, as it was called, was intimately associated with mass entertainment, and in the life of civilized human beings massed entertainment now plays a part comparable to that played in the Middle Ages be religion.”
“You can t change the past, only your perception of it; but you can control the future.”
“The more God asks us to participate in His mysteries, the more disoriented we become, because He asks us constantly to follow our dreams and our hearts. And that s difficult to do when we re used to living in a different way. Finally we discover, to our surprise, that God wants us to be happy, because He is the Father.”
“Se ha inventado casi todo pero no ha inventado el hombre una máxima de gobierno que supere a los principios de un Cristo, un Buda. No. Naturalmente, no le discutiré el derecho al escepticismo, pero el escepticismo es un lujo de minoría... Al resto le serviremos la felicidad bien cocinada y la humanidad engullirá gozosamente la divina bazofia.”
“Let them see that you trust them & let them solve their own problems, make their own decisions.Do that & they will commit their lives to you. Bully the, control them out of fear or malice or just for your own convenience, & after a while you ll have to spend all your time thinking for them, controlling them, & stifling their resentment.”