Background Image
...
If 90% Of Success In Life Is Showing Up, The Other 10% Depends On What You're Showing Up For.
-Woody Allen
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

If 90% Of Success

Woody Allen
...
If 90% Of Success In Life Is Showing Up, The Other 10% Depends On What You're Showing Up For.

Understanding the Quote: "if 90% of success in life is showing up, the other 10%..."

This quote by Woody Allen reflects deeply on the theme of goal. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Goal, Showing Up, Life Is, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Woody Allen interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Woody Allen

Woody Allen is celebrated for insightful thoughts on goal and showing up. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 2856
Topic
Goal
Showing Up
Life Is
More From Woody Allen
Chastity Is Curable, If Detected Early.
Chastity
Ifs
My Relationship With American Audiences Is The Exact Same As It Always Has Been. They Never Came To See My Films, And They Don't Come Now.
Film
Audience
Has Beens
I Have One Last Request. Don't Use Embalming Fluid On Me; I Want To Be Stuffed With Crab Meat.
Meat
Use
Want
The History Of The World Is Like: He Kills Me, I Kill Him, Only With Different Cosmetics And Different Castings. So In 2001, Some Fanatics Killed Some Americans, And Now Some Americans Are Killing Some Iraqis. And In My Childhood, Some Nazis Killed Jews. And Now, Some Jewish People And Some Palestinians Are Killing Each Other.
People
Childhood
Different
Is Knowledge Knowable? If Not, How Do We Know?
Knows
Ifs
I Think Hollywood Has Gone In A Disastrous Path. It's Terrible. The Years Of Cinema That Were Great Were The '30s, '40s, Not So Much The '50s...but Then The Foreign Films Took Over And It Was A Great Age Of Cinema As American Directors Were Influenced By Them And That Fueled The '50s And '60s And '70s.
Thinking
Years
Age
It's Funny. Maria Elena And I, We Are Meant For Each Other And Not Meant For Each Other, It's A Contradiction.
Barcelona
Contradiction
I'm A Big Believer In Supporting The Action On Film With The Appropriate Music. It Covers A Multitude Of Sins. It's Gotten Me Out Of A Lot Of Jams, Over The Years. So, Music For Me Is A Very Big Thing In Films And I Use It Unashamedly.
Years
Jam
Use
I Prefer The Magic To Reality, And Have Since I Was 5 Years Old. Hopefully, I Can Continue To Make Films And Constantly Escape Into Them.
Reality
Years
Magic
Time Is Nature's Way Of Keeping Everything From Happening At Once.
Funny
Time
Inspiration
You Know, It's One Thing About Intellectuals, They Prove That You Can Be Absolutely Brilliant And Have No Idea What's Going On.
Ideas
Annie Hall
Brilliant
I Don't Know What The Hell I'm Doing Here. I'm 237 Years Old, I Should Be Collecting Social Security.
Years
Hell
Social
I Don't Get Depressed; I Grow A Tumor Instead.
Grows
Tumors
I'm Awash In Self-contempt!
Sad
Self
Contempt
Events Unfold So Unpredictably, So Unfairly, Human Happiness Does Not Seem To Be Included In The Design Of Creation. It Is Only We, With Our Capacity To Love That Give Meaning To The Indifferent Universe. And Yet, Most Human Beings Seem To Have The Ability To Keep Trying And Even Try To Find Joy From Simple Things, Like Their Family, Their Work, And From The Hope That Future Generations Might Understand More.
Simple
Capacity To Love
Giving
I Think A Relationship Is Like A Shark. It Has To Constantly Move Forward Or It Dies.
Relationship
Moving
Thinking
I Want To Return To The Womb, Anyone's.
Want
Return
Womb
There Are Three Things Jewish People Worship-god, Chinese Food And Wall-to-wall Carpeting.
Wall
People
Chinese
Remember, If You Smoke After Sex You're Doing It Too Fast.
Funny
Anniversary
Sex
I Don't Believe In God. Just Try Getting A Plumber On The Weekend.
Believe
Weekend
Trying
The Only Love That Lasts Is Unrequited Love.
Love
Lasts
Unrequited
. . . They Confuse Everything I Do With My Life.
Therefore, To Be Unhappy One Must Love, Or Love To Suffer, Or Suffer From Too Much Happiness. I Hope You're Getting This Down.
Movie Love
Suffering
Unhappy
Magic Has Always Been Of A Great Interest Of Mine. I Was An Amateur Magician When I Was Young. I Used To Practice And Read Up On It A Lot. I'm Well-aware Of The History Of Magic.
Practice
Magic
Used
You're A Genius! And The Proof Is That Both Common People And Intellectuals Find Your Work Completely Incoherent.
People
Genius
Common
I've Never Had A Block. I'm Talking Within The Limits Of My Abilities. But In My Own Small Way, I've Had An Embarrassment Of Riches. I'll Have Five Ideas And I'm Dying To Do Them All. It Takes Weeks Or Months Where I Agonize And Obsess Over Which To Do Next. I Wish Sometimes Someone Would Choose For Me. If Someone Said, Do Idea Number Three Next, That Would Be Fine. But I Have Never Had Any Sense Of Running Dry.
Running
Block
Talking
Who Bothers To Cook Tv Dinners? I Suck Them Frozen.
Frozen
Dinner
Tvs
You Always Think Another Time Would Have Been Ideal For You . . . The Reality Is There Was No Novocaine When You Went To The Dentist.
Reality
Thinking
Dentist
I Don't Think My Parents Liked Me. They Put A Live Teddy Bear In My Crib.
Funny
Humor
Parenting
Everybody Knows How Awful The World Is And What A Terrible Situation It Is And Each Person Distorts It In A Certain Way That Enables Him To Get Through. Some People Distort It With Religious Things. Some People Distort It With Sports, With Money, With Love, With Art, And They All Have Their Own Nonsense About What Makes It Meaningful, And All But Nothing Makes It Meaningful. These Things Definitely Serve A Certain Function, But In The End They All Fail To Give Life Meaning And Everyone Goes To His Grave In A Meaningless Way.
Meaningful
Sports
Religious
The Movie Is Usually, For Me, Something Organic That Grows All The Time. I Sit Home And Write It, And I'm In An Isolated, Four-walled Environment, And I Don't Know What's Going On. I Just Write It, And It's Appearing In My Head In Some Idealized Way Where Every Single Moment Works, And Every Little Thing Is Perfect, Because It's In My Head.
Single Mom
Home
Writing
Sex Is The Most Fun You Can Have Without Laughing.
Witty
Sex
Fun
Life Is Short. Short, And Not About Anything Except What You Can Touch And What Touches You.
Life Is Short
Life Is
The True Test Of Maturity Is Not How Old A Person Is But How He Reacts To Awakening In The Mid-town Area In His Shorts.
Maturity
Awakening
Tests
People Say That Death Is A Part Of Life And There Must Be Something To It, But I Just See It As Bad News And I Want Everybody To Stop Sugarcoating It.
People
News
Want
Even If God Exists, He's Done Such A Terrible Job, It's A Wonder People Don't Get Together And File A Class Action Suit Against Him.
God
Jobs
Class
To Me There’s No Real Difference Between A Fortune Teller Or A Fortune Cookie And Any Of The Organized Religions. They’re All Equally Valid Or Invalid, Really. And Equally Helpful.
Funny
Real
Humor
You Are Always A Comedian By Default. You Are This Way Because You've Been Forced To Be This Way, But It Is Better To Be The Hero. So If You Can Be A Persona, The Great One Of My Lifetime Of Course Was And Is Marlon Brando.
Hero
Comedian
Way
If There Is Reincarnation, I'd Like To Come Back As Warren Beatty's Fingertips.
Sex
Reincarnation
Fingertips
Achilles Only Had An Achilles Heel, I Have An Entire Achilles Body.
Body
Achilles
Achilles Heel
I Think Universal Harmony Is A Pipedream And It May Be More Productive To Focus On More Modest Goals, Like A Ban On Yodeling.
Thinking
Goal
Focus
Is World Peace Possible Or Is The Human Race Too Innately Aggressive? For Instance: Have You Ever Seen Women At A Sample Sale?
Race
World
Aggressive
I Do The Movies Just For Myself Like An Institutionalized Person Who Basket-weaves. Busy Fingers Are Happy Fingers. I Don't Care About The Films. I Don't Care If They're Flushed Down The Toilet After I Die.
Care
Toilets
Busy
I Hope You're Getting This Down.
Happy Love
Love And Death
Hilarious Love
Don't You See The Rest Of The Country Looks Upon New York Like We're Left-wing, Communist, Jewish, Homosexual Pornographers? I Think Of Us That Way Sometimes And I Live Here.
Country
New York
Thinking
Every Time You Make A Movie It's A New And Different Experience. You Learn Very Little From The Past. So, I'm A Little Bit Better Than I Was When I First Started.
Past
Different Experiences
Firsts
I Just Can't Listen To Any More Wagner, You Know...i'm Starting To Get The Urge To Conquer Poland.
Witty
Humorous
Conquer
I Was Raised In The Jewish Tradition, Taught Never To Marry A Gentile Woman, Shave On A Saturday Night And, Most Especially, Never To Shave A Gentile Woman On A Saturday Night.
Night
Jewish Tradition
Taught
In The Event Of War, I'm A Hostage.
War
Events
Hostage
I Have A Limitless Amount Of Great Music At My Disposal And It's Very, Very Pleasurable Because When The Music Goes On The Film It's Amazing How Much It Livens Up The Film And Gives It An Emotional Kick In The Pants, Sort Of.
Emotional
Giving
Goes On
I Think There Is Too Much Wrong With The World To Ever Get Too Relaxed And Happy. The More Natural State, And The Better One, I Think, Is One Of Some Anxiety And Tension Over Man's Plight In This Mysterious Universe.
Men
Thinking
Mysterious Universe
Life Is A Tragedy Filled With Suffering And Despair And Yet Some People Do Manage To Avoid Jury Duty.
People
Suffering
Tragedy
I Can Understand That An Audience, Buying A Ticket To See A Picture Of Mine, Wants To See Something Funny Because They Feel Confident That At Least I Have A Fighting Chance To Make A Funny Film When I Make A Film, Whereas If I Make A Dramatic Film There's One Chance In A Thousand That It's Really Going To Come Out Great, So I Understand How They Feel About That And They're Completely Right.
Fighting
Want
Buying
When I Started Out, I Was A Television Writer, And We Wrote A Television Show That Was On Live Every Week. And You Didn't Have The Luxury Of Coming In And Waiting To Be Inspired. You Came In And You Had To Write. And You Wrote, Because It Was Going To Be Live On The Air. So I Can Do That.
Writing
Air
Luxury
I'd Call Him A Sadistic, Hippophilic Necrophile, But That Would Be Beating A Dead Horse.
Sarcastic
Horse
Sadism
90% Of Success In Life Is Showing Up
Showing Up
Life Is
Success In Life
Whosoever Loveth Wisdom Is Righteous, But He That Keepeth Company With Fowl Is Weird.
Love
Wisdom
Fowl
All The Crap They Tell You About... Getting Joy And Having A Kind Of Wisdom In Your Golden Years - It's All Tripe.
Years
Joy
Golden
Cynicism Is Reality With An Alternate Spelling.
Reality
Cynicism
Spelling
The Chief Problem About Death ... Is The Fear That There May Be No Afterlife - A Depressing Thought.
Depressing
Afterlife
May
As The Author You Know How You Want It To Appear On Screen And It's Always The Content Dictating The Form.
Want
Form
Know How
I Never Think I Feel Cynical In General. Cynical Is Reality With An Alternate Spelling. I Feel There's A Gigantic Amount Of Injustice And Overt Crime Every Day In The World, From Emotional Crimes To International Crimes, And It Often Carries Rewards.
Reality
Emotional
Thinking
I Think It's My Job Or The Artist's Job, To Try And Find Some Solution Or Some Reason To Accept Things. But Given The Grimmest Reality, I Feel The Grimmest Facts Are The Real Facts, The True Facts: That You're Born, You Die, You Suffer, It's To No Purpose, And You're Gone Forever, Ever, Ever, And That's It.
Jobs
Real
Thinking
It Is Impossible To Experience One's Death Objectively And Still Carry A Tune.
Funny
Death
Humor
I Am Told The Settlement Of $5 Million I Am Being Paid Is The Largest Amount Ever Paid Under The New York Right To Privacy Law
New York
Law
Privacy
Jazz Is A Big Thing With Me. It's A Very Big Passion Of Mine, To Play It. I'm An Amateur Musician And I Love Everything About It. I Was Obsessed With Jazz When I Was 15 Years Old And I Know A Lot About It Because I've Loved It So Much.
Passion
Years
Play
It's Very Hard To Keep Your Spirits Up. You've Got To Keep Selling Yourself A Bill Of Goods, And Some People Are Better At Lying To Themselves Than Others. If You Face Reality Too Much, It Kills You.... You've Got To Find An Answer To The Question: Why Go On?
Lying
Reality
People
Until You've Been Kissed On A Rainy Parisian Afternoon - You've Never Been Kissed.
Afternoon
Never Been Kissed
Rainy
What If The Worst Is True? What If There's No God, And You Only Go Around Once, And That's It? Don't You Want To Be A Part Of The Experience? You Know, What The Hell? It's Not All A Drag, And I'm Thinking To Myself: Geez! I Should Stop Ruining My Life Searching For Answers I'm Never Gonna Get And Just Enjoy It While It Lasts. And, You Know, After-who Knows? Maybe There Is Something, Nobody Really Knows. I Know That Maybe Is A Very Slim Reed To Hang Your Whole Life On, But That's The Best We Have.
Witty
Humorous
Thinking
There Is Dignity In Suffering; Nobility In Pain; But Failure Is A Salted Wound, That Burns And Burns Again!
Wise
Pain
Suffering
I Do Occasionally Envy The Person Who Is Religious Naturally, Without Being Brainwashed Into It Or Suckered Into It By All The Organized Hustles.
Religious
Envy
Religion
If You Aren't Failing, You Aren't Trying.
Trying
Failing
Ifs
Those Modern Analysts, They Charge So Much! In My Day, For Five Marks Freud Himself Would Treat You. For Ten Marks He Would Treat You And Press Your Pants. For Fifteen Marks Freud Would Let You Treat Him - That Included A Choice Of Any Two Vegetables.
Vegetables
Two
Choices
You Are Much More Dependent On Luck Than You Think. People Say If You Want To Have A Good Relationship, You Have To Work At It. But You Never Hear It About Anything You Really Like, About Sailing Or Going To Soccer Games.
Soccer
Thinking
Games
Sex And Death. Two Things That Come But Once In My Lifetime, But At Least After Death You're Not Nauseous.
Funny
Sex
Humor
I Have No Idea What I Am Doing But Incompetence Has Never Prevented Me From Plunging In With Enthusiasm.
Witty
Humorous
Ideas
If You Pursue The Other Woman, It's A Losing Situation And It's Not Good For Your Relationship Or Your Marriage. If Your Marriage Is Open And You're Allowed To, That's No Good Either. There's No Way, Really In The End, To Be Happy Unless You Get Very Lucky.
Way
Lucky
Losing
Marriage? That's For Life! It's Like Cement!
Marriage
Cement
I Wouldn't Mind Dying So Much If It Wasn't That I Would Be Dead At The End Of It.
Mind
Dying
Would Be
This Guy Goes To A Psychiatrist And Says, Doc, My Brother’s Crazy. He Thinks He’s A Chicken. The Doctor Says, Well, Why Don’t You Turn Him In? And The Guy Says, I Would But I Need The Eggs. Well I Guess That’s Pretty Much How I Feel About Relationships. You Know They’re Totally Irrational And Crazy And Absurd But I Guess We Keep Going Through It Because, Uh, Most Of Us Need The Eggs.
Witty
Brother
Crazy
I Like Broad Comedy. If I Had An Idea Tomorrow For A Film That Was All Slapstick And Broad Comedy, And It Was An Idea That Interested Me, I Would Not Hesitate To Do It Because I Enjoy Watching These Kinds Of Film.
Ideas
Comedy
Tomorrow
Honey, There's A Spider In Your Bathroom The Size Of A Buick.
Annie Hall
Spiders
Honey
Is Sex Dirty? Only When It's Being Done Right.
Witty
Sex
Humorous
Human Existence Is A Brutal Experience To Me... It's A Brutal, Meaningless Experience - An Agonizing, Meaningless Experience With Some Oases, Delight, Some Charm And Peace, But These Are Just Small Oases. Overall, It Is A Brutal, Terrible Experience, And So It Salvation Is What Can You Do To Alleviate The Agony Of The Human Condition, The Human Predicament? That Is What Interests Me The Most.
Agony
Oasis
Agonizing
Man Consists Of Two Parts, His Mind And His Body, Only The Body Has More Fun.
Fun
Men
Two
For Me Personally - Because I Do It Myself - The Scoring Of A Picture Is Fun. I Edit The Picture And When I've Finished I Go Into My Room And I Have Many Many Records - Jazz, Classical And Popular Music. And I Have This All At My Disposal. I Don't Have To Get A Composer.
Fun
Records
Rooms
Basically My Wife Was Immature. I'd Be At Home In The Bath And She'd Come In And Sink My Boats.
Inspirational
Funny
Life
I Don't Think My Film Style Has Changed. I'm Doing The Same Kind Of Jokes I Did When I Was Younger.
Thinking
Style
Kind
I Carry A Bullet In My Breast Pocket. Once, A Crazy Evangelist Threw A Bible At Me, Which Would Have Gone Through My Heart If It Wasn't For The Bullet.
Crazy
Heart
Pockets
I Don't Believe In Competition For Artistic Things. I Just Like The Atmosphere Of The Cannes Festival. I Don't Want To Win Anything Or Lose Anything.
Believe
Winning
Competition
Since I Was A Kid, I Could Make Up Stories, I Could Make Up Funny Jokes And I Could Always Do It. When I'm Walking Down The Street Or Having Dinner, Ideas Will Hit Me, And I Write Them Down On Matchbooks Or Napkins And Throw Them In The Draw.
Writing
Kids
Ideas
The Universe Is Merely A Fleeting Idea In God's Mind -- A Pretty Uncomfortable Thought, Particularly If You've Just Made A Down Payment On A House.
Funny
Laughter
Ideas
I Believe In Sex And Death- Two Experiences That Come Once In A Lifetime.
Sex
Believe
Two
I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know What I Don't Want
Want
Knows
90 Per Cent Of Success Is Turning Up.
Cents
Some People Want To Achieve Immortality Through Their Works Or Their Descendants. I Prefer To Achieve Immortality By Not Dying.
People
Dying
Want
I Can't Minimize The Terror Factor. As You Get Older You Get More And More Frightened Because The Terrible Indignities Of Old Age Become Closer To You.
Age
Frightened
Terrible
I'm Not Saying I Didn't Enjoy Myself, But I Didn't.
Enjoy
Better Not Think Too Much. Relying More On The Body: It Is More Trustworthy.
Thinking
Body
Too Much
I Foresee Death By Culture Shock.
Culture
Shock
Culture Shock
That’s One Of The Nice Things About Writing, Or Any Art; If The Thing’s Real, It Just Lives. All The Attendant Hoopla About It, The Success Over It Or The Critical Rejection—none Of That Really Matters. In The End, The Thing Will Survive Or Not On Its Own Merits. Not That Immortality Via Art Is Any Big Deal. Truffaut Died, And We All Felt Awful About It, And There Were The Appropriate Eulogies, And His Wonderful Films Live On. But It’s Not Much Help To Truffaut.
Art
Real
Nice
Most Of The Time I Don't Have Much Fun. The Rest Of The Time I Don't Have Any Fun At All.
Sarcastic
Time
Fun
I've Gained No Wisdom, No Insight, No Mellowing. I Would Make All The Same Mistakes Again, Today.
Mistake
Today
Same Mistakes
The Heart Is A Very, Very Resilient Little Muscle. It Really Is.
Heart
Littles
Resilient
Who's The Bigger Idiot, The Idiot Or The Idiot Who Gets Fooled By The Idiot?
Idiot
Bigger
Fooled
I Sued American Apparel Because They Calculatingly Took My Name, My Likeness And Image And Used Them Publicly To Promote Their Business.
Hipster
Names
Used
There's No Rhyme Or Reason To Anything That I Do. It's Whatever Seems Right At The Time.
Reason
Rhyme
Seems
The Less I Speak To The Actors, The Better. And I Always Hire Great People, And I Don't Want To Impose My Pre-conceived Notions On Them. They Know How To Play It.
Play
People
Actors
Raised By Two Mothers...wow, Most Of Us Barely Survive One
Mother
Two
Wow
Sex Without Love Is An Empty Experience, But As Empty Experiences Go, It's One Of The Best.
Love
Funny
Sexy
I've Had A Very Productive Life. I've Worked Very Hard, I've Never Fallen Prey To Depression. I'm Not Sure I Could Have Done All Of That Without Being In Psychoanalysis.
Productive Life
Done
Prey
If I Could Just Hope To Have A Major Talent, Then I Would Rather Have It In Music Than In Any Other Field.
Fields
Talent
Majors
I've Often Felt That Life Is A Hard Deal And It's Unrelentingly Tragic And An Uphill Fight.
Fighting
Life Is
Tragic
Abysmal Vermin That I Am, I Couldn't Of Course Tell Her That It Was Her Incredible Mother That I Wanted To See Again… I Knew Only As I Drove Through The Cold, Night Autumn Air That Somewhere Freud, Sophocles And Eugene O’neill Were Laughing.
Mother
Autumn
Night
If I Was To See Any Of My Films Now I Would Feel, Oh God You Know It's Awful I Could Do That So Much Better Now. Look At All The Terrible Things I Did And All The Mistakes And All The Compromises And All The Blunders I Made, And It Would Be Such A Terrible Experience For Me To See Them. So It's Better That I Put It Out And Move On To The Next Thing And Make It History As Quickly As Possible.
Mistake
Moving
Would Be
With Films, I Just Scribble A Couple Of Notes For A Scene. You Don't Have To Do Any Writing At All, You Just Have Your Notes For The Scene, Which Are Written With The Actors And The Camera In Mind. The Actual Script Is A Necessity For Casting And Budgeting, But The End Product Often Doesn't Bear Much Resemblance To The Script--at Least In My Case.
Couple
Writing
Mind
I Am Thankful For Laughter, Except When Milk Comes Out Of My Nose.
Funny
Life
Thankful
If God Exists, I Hope He Has A Good Excuse.
Death
Witty
Humorous
Eighty Percent Of Success Is Showing Up.
Inspirational
Positive
Inspiring
I'm Not A Drinker, My Body Won't Tolerate...eh...spirits, Really. I Had Two Martinis New Years Eve And I Tried To Hi-jack An Elevator And Fly It To Cuba.
Funny
New Year
Witty
I Never Have An Alter Ego In The Movies. That's A Fiction That The Press Has Made Up Over The Years, And It's Fun To Write That. It Gives Them Something To Write.
Fun
Writing
Years
If The World Is A Progressively Realized Community Of Interpretation, Then Either Quadruplictity Will Drink Procrastination Or, Provided That The Nothing Negates, Boredom Will Ensue Seldom More Often Than Frequently.
Procrastination
Boredom
Community
I Can Live In Paris For Four Months Or London Or, You Know, Barcelona. These Are Places That Are Like New York. But I Don't Think I Could Live In Many Places. When I Had To Make A Film In The United States I Picked San Francisco Because To Me It's One Of The Great Cities Of America.
New York
Thinking
Cities
I’m Going To Kill Myself. I Should Go To Paris And Jump Off The Eiffel Tower. I’ll Be Dead. You Know, In Fact, If I Get The Concorde, I Could Be Dead Three Hours Earlier, Which Would Be Perfect. Or Wait A Minute. It -- With The Time Change, I Could Be Alive For Six Hours In New York But Dead Three Hours In Paris. I Could Get Things Done, And I Could Also Be Dead.
Witty
New York
Humorous
I Write About What I Want To Write About, And So The Film Comes Out As A Very Personal Expression Even If Its Subject Matter Is Totally Prefabricated.
Writing
Expression
Want
A Deranged Person Is Supposed To Have The Strength Of Ten Men. I Have The Strength Of One Small Boy... With Polio.
Witty
Humorous
Boys
I Like Writing. It Keeps My Mind Off Grim Subjects. It's Therapeutic In The Same Way A Patient In An Institution Is Given Fingerpaints.
Writing
Mind
Way
I Should Go To Paris And Jump Off Of The Eiffel Tower. If I Took The Concorde, I Could Be Dead Three Hours Earlier.
Witty
Humorous
Paris
When I'm Not Working, I Think And I Think When I Get Depressed.
Thinking
"boy, The Food At This Place Is Really Terrible." The Other One Says, "yeah, I Know; And Such Small Portions." Well, That's Essentially How I Feel About Life - Full Of Loneliness, And Misery, And Suffering, And Unhappiness, And It's All Over Much Too Quickly.
Terrible
Portions
Feels
There Is An Advantage In Having A Routine And Working With The Same People When You Can And In Writing As A Regular Thing And Filming As A Regular Thing. That Routine Pays Off For You. You Get A Lot Of Productivity That Way, Rather Than Sitting Around Waiting For Inspiration And Waiting For The Perfect Thing To Happen. I Would Be Much Less Productive That Way.
Inspiration
Writing
People
History Is The Same Thing Over And Over Again.
Fitness Motivational
Temporary Insanity
Bores You
I Had An Iq Test. The Results Came Back Negative.
God
Stupidity
Negative
Right Now It's Only A Notion, But I Think I Can Get The Money To Make It Into A Concept, And Later Turn It Into An Idea.
Thinking
Ideas
Notion
I Don't Like To Reminisce Much, And My Walls Don't Have Photographs Of Me And The Actors I Was With, Or Any Of That Stuff... I Try And Keep That Disciplined, And Just Work. There Are So Many Traps You Can Get Into, And Looking Back On Your Own Work Is Certainly One Of Them.
Wall
Trying
Reminiscing
If I Had My Life To Live Over, I Wish I Could Be A Great Pianist Or Something.
Wish
Pianist
Ifs
In My Next Life I Want To Live Backwards. Start Out Dead And Finish Off As An Orgasm.
Want
Next
Backwards
Just Don't Take Any Class Where You Have To Read Beowulf.
School
Class
Advice
If You Aren't Failing Every Now And Then, You're Probably Playing It Too Safe.
Safe
Failing
Now And Then
The French Make Two Mistakes About Me. They Think I'm An Intellectual Because I Wear These Glasses And They Think I'm An Artist Because My Films Lose Money.
Artist
Glasses
Years
Rather Than Live On In The Hearts And Minds Of My Fellow Man, I Would Rather Live On In My Apartment.
Heart
Men
Mind
When You Are Dead, It Is Hard To Find The Light Switch.
Light
Hard
Show Business Is Dog Eat Dog. It's Worse Than Dog Eat Dog. It's Dog Doesn't Return Dog's Phone Calls.
Dog
Phones
Return
To Me, Movies Are Valuable As An Art Form And As A Wonderful Means Of Popular Entertainment. But I Think Movies Have Gone Terribly Wrong.
Art
Mean
Thinking
I Didn't Know He Was Dead; I Thought He Was British.
Funny
British
Knows
Retirement Is A Very Subjective Thing. There Are Guys I Know Who Retire And They're Very Happy And They Never Miss Work At All. I Can't See Myself Retiring And Fondling A Dog Every Day. I Like To Get Up And Work And Go Out. I Have Too Much Energy Or Too Much Nervous Anxiety Or Something. So I Don't See Myself Retiring. Maybe I Will Suddenly Get A Stroke Or A Heart Attack And I Will Be Forced To Retire, But If My Health Holds Out I Don't Expect To Retire.
Dog
Retirement
Heart
Some Of The Best Memories Of My Childhood That I Have Are The Times That I Played Hooky From School So I Could Spend My Days In The Public Library Reading All The Wonderful Books At My Disposal.
Memories
Book
Reading
If You're Born With A Gift, To Behave Like It's An Achievement Is Not Right.
Achievement
Born
Behave
The Great Roe Is A Mythological Beast With The Head Of A Lion And The Body Of A Lion, Though Not The Same Lion.
Excellence
Body
Lions
Science Is An Intellectual Dead End, You Know? It's A Lot Of Little Guys In Tweed Suits Cutting Up Frogs On Foundation Grants.
Cutting
Guy
Intellectual
I Prefer To Achieve Immortality By Not Dying.
Dying
Immortality
Achieve
What' S The Matter With Me? Why Can't I Be Cool?
Matter
Being Cool
I Idolized Superman When I Was Younger. I Thought He And I Had A Lot In Common. He Was Always Going Into Phonebooths And Taking Off All His Clothes.
Clothes
Common
Idolized
If You Meet Somebody And Are Attracted To Someone, And The Exquisite Neurons In Your Brain And Her Brain Intermesh Properly, Then Things Can Be Wonderful. It's Not Like Homework. You Don't Have To Work At The Relationship.
Brain
Neurons
Homework
[...] I've Come To The Conclusion That The Artist Can Not Justify Life Or Come Up With A Cogent Reason As To Why Life Is Meaningful, But The Artist Can Provide You With A Cold Glass Of Water On A Hot Day.
Meaningful
Artist
Glasses
I Was Nauseous And Tingly All Over. I Was Either In Love Or I Had Smallpox.
Love
Heartbreak
Kissing
When We Played Softball, I'd Steal Second Base, Feel Guilty And Go Back.
Funny
Softball
Baseball
I Wish My Parents Had Raised Me In Manhattan Because I Think It's The Greatest Thing You Can Do For A Kid Is To Raise Them In New York City. I Can See This With My Own Children.
New York
Children
Kids
You Can't Anticipate In The Room The Riches Of What You Encounter When You're Location Hunting For A Movie.
Hunting
Encounters
Riches
The Dictatorship Is Shut Up, Democracy Is Always Concerned.
Democracy
Shut Up
Dictatorship
I Think Crime Pays. The Hours Are Good, You Travel A Lot
Thinking
Pay
Hours
Your Audience Teaches You How To Be Funny.
Teach
Audience
Dying Is Like Making Love, Except You Don't Get Naseous Afterwards.
Making Love
Dying
Man Was Made In God`s Image. Do You Really Think God Has Red Hair And Glasses?
Men
Thinking
Glasses
My Wife And I Thought We Were In Love, But It Turned Out To Be Benign
Inspiration
Wife
Benign
I Don't Want To Live Forever Through My Work. I Want To Live Forever By Not Dying.
Forever
Dying
Want
In Real Life I'm Not The Character I Play In My Films. I'm Reasonably Competent, I Work Very Hard, I'm Disciplined, I Lead A Very Middle Class Life. I Work In The Mornings, I Have Lunch, I Practise My Clarinet, I Go To The Movies, I Eat Out In Restaurants Or Watch Ball Games On Television Or At The Ball Games.
Morning
Real
Character
Writing Is Great Because In The Writing You Never Have To... First Of All You Never Have To Leave Your Home. And You Never Have To Meet The Test Of Reality When You're Writing.
Writing
Mean
Reality
When I Was A Young Man, My Friends And I And All Of Us In New York Were Very Influenced By French Cinema. French Cinema Played An Enormous Influence On Those Of Us Who Wanted To Be Filmmakers.
New York
Men
Cinema
Love Is Too Weak A Word For What I Feel - I Luuurve You, You Know, I Loave You, I Luff You, Two F's, Yes.
Romantic
Love Is
Two
In The Shower, With The Hot Water Coming Down, You've Left The Real World Behind, And Very Frequently Things Open Up For You. It's The Change Of Venue, The Unblocking The Attempt To Force The Ideas That's Crippling You When You're Trying To Write.
Real
Writing
Ideas
For A While We Pondered Whether To Take A Vacation Or Get A Divorce. We Decided That A Trip To Bermuda Is Over In Two Weeks, But A Divorce Is Something You Always Have.
Funny
Single
Divorce
In California, They Don't Throw Their Garbage Away - They Make It Into Tv Shows.
Funny
Sarcastic
Witty
Some Drink Deeply From The River Of Knowledge. Others Only Gargle.
Knowledge
Rivers
Stupidity
I Was Thrown Out Of Nyu For Cheating-with The Deans Wife
Cheating
Nyu
Wife
My Mother Never Had Time For Me. When You're The Middle Child In A Family Of Five Million, You Don't Get Any Attention.
Mother
Children
Middle Child
When You Make The Film, It's Like A Chef Who Works On The Meal. After You're Working All Day In The Kitchen And Dicing And Cutting And Putting The Sauces On, You Don't Want To Eat It. That's How I Always Feel About The Films. I Work On It For A Year. I've Written It, I've Worked With The Actors, I've Edited, Put The Music In. I Just Never Want To See It Again.
Cutting
Years
Kitchen
Take The Money And Run.
Running
Annie Hall
Chapel
I Enjoy The Making Of The Film And It's Something For Me To Do. If Nobody Ever Comes To My Films, If People Don't Want To Give Me Money To Make Films, That Will Stop Me. But As Long As People Come All Over The World And I Have An Audience And I Have Ideas For Films, I Will Do Them For As Long As I Enjoy The Process. And I Like The Whole Process Of Making A Film.
Ideas
Long
People
I Don't Mind Dying... As Long As I Don't Have To Be There When It Happens.
Long
Mind
Dying
I Wonder If Socrates And Plato Took A House On Crete During The Summer.
Summer
Plato
House
Another Good Thing About Being Poor Is That When You Are Seventy Your Children Will Not Have You Declared Legally Insane In Order To Gain Control Of Your Estate.
Money
Children
Order
It Seemed The World Was Divided Into Good And Bad People. The Good Ones Slept Better While The Bad Ones Seemed To Enjoy The Waking Hours Much More.
Funny
Book
Humor
He's A Genius, She's A Genius, Wow, You Know Alot Of Geniuses, You Should Meet Some Stupid People Sometime, You Might Learn Something
Witty
Stupid
Humorous
My One Regret In Life Is That I Am Not Someone Else.
Funny
Life
Witty
Why Not? Life Is Short, Life Is Dull, Life Is Full Of Pain - And This Is A Chance For Something Special.
Pain
Short Life
Life Is Short
I Should Have Known Something Was Wrong With My First Wife. When I Brought Her Home To Meet My Parents, They Approved Of Her.
Home
Divorce
Should Have
In Fact, When They Wake Up In The Morning, They're Jack Nicholson Or Robert De Niro Or Josh Brolin. And It's Built-in, But They Think It's All This Other Stuff. But It's Not. They'd Be Great If They Didn't Think About Their Part Or If They Did Think About It.
Morning
Thinking
Wake Up
I Keep Getting More And More Ambitious. Over The Years, To Some Degree, In Some Areas, I Feel I've Grown. In Some Areas, I Made A Fool Of Myself. In Some Areas, I Think I Can Still Do Some Funny Things.
Thinking
Years
Funny Things
If I Could Only See One Miracle, Just One Miracle. Like A Burning Bush, Or The Seas Part, Or My Uncle Sasha Pick Up A Check.
Uncles
Sea
Miracle
I Don't Want To Move To A City Where The Only Cultural Advantage Is Being Able To Make A Right Turn On A Red Light.
Moving
Cities
Light
All People Know The Same Truth. Our Lives Consist Of How We Choose To Distort It.
Inspiring
Witty
Funny Inspirational
If My Films Make One More Person Miserable, I'll Feel I Have Done My Job.
Funny
Witty
Jobs
Me Sitting Down For Dinner With Ingmar Bergman Felt Like A House Painter Sitting Down With Picasso.
House
Sitting Down
Dinner
There's A Tacit Agreement Between Myself And The Audience That I Will Entertain Them When They Buy Their Ticket, And I've Been The One That Has Screwed That Up. Once In While I Indulge Myself And Try Something Else, And I Keep My Fingers Crossed That It Will Come Out Good And There'll Be Enough People Who Will Enjoy It, But That Doesn't Often Happen.
Agreement
People
Trying
For Some Reason I've Always Had An Irrational Love For New York. There's No Reason That You Would Necessarily Like It On Paper. It's Very Expensive.
New York
Paper
Reason
I Didn't Go To Paris Until I Was A Grown-up In 1965. And When I Went To Paris, It Was The Paris I Knew Only From American Movies.
Paris
American Movie
People Are Always Talking About The Dumbing Down Of The Country.
Country
Talking
People
You Can Be With Your Wife, Very Happily Married, And Then You Meet Some Woman And You Love Her. But You Love Your Wife, Too. And You Also Love That One. Or If She's Met Some Man And She Loves The Man And She Loves You. And Then You Meet Somebody Else And Now There Are Three Of You. Why Only One Person?
Love You
Men
Wife
The Study Of Economy Usually Shows Us That The Best Time For Purchase Was Last Year.
Years
Lasts
Study
Trending Author
Graham Norton
Stevie Nicks
Muqtada Al Sadr
Jaron Lanier
Selena Gomez
Lucille Clifton
Category
Information