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The Value Of Work, And Of Always Learning Something New, And What It Takes To Achieve Excellence. I Really Believe In Those Things That You Have To Dedicate Yourself And Spend Time, That Excellence Is Elusive. It's A Little Maddening, To Try To Have That Level Of Discipline In Your Life, And I Don't Succeed All The Time. But I Do Try.

-Ben Affleck

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The Value Of Work,

Ben Affleck

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The Value Of Work, And Of Always Learning Something New, And What It Takes To Achieve Excellence. I Really Believe In Those Things That You Have To Dedicate Yourself And Spend Time, That Excellence Is Elusive. It's A Little Maddening, To Try To Have That Level Of Discipline In Your Life, And I Don't Succeed All The Time. But I Do Try.

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Learning Something New

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I Hate The Whole Reluctant Sex-symbol Thing. It's Such Bull. You See These Dudes Greased Up, In Their Underwear, Talking About How They Don't Want To Be A Sex Symbol.

My Mother Taught Public School, Went To Harvard And Then Got Her Master's There And Taught Fifth And Sixth Grade In A Public School. My Dad Had A More Working-class Lifestyle. He Didn't Go To College. He Was An Auto Mechanic And A Bartender And A Janitor At Harvard.

Yes, I'm Going To Be The President Of The United States. You Know Why? You Think You Can Get Chicks By Being In The Movies? You Can Really Get Chicks By Being The President.

If You Think Hollywood Is Depressing And Corrupt, Politics Is Really Depressing And Corrupt -- And Fueled Even More Than Hollywood By Money -- If That's Possible.

Online Gambling Is Very Seductive And Very Illusory. It Can Seem Like A Really Good Idea. It Can Seem Like What People Told You To Work Hard And Get Ahead, But When Someone Shows You Something And It's Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is.

My Mother Went To Radcliffe, And Rather Than Just Trying To Get Rich, She Wanted To Be A Teacher And Taught For Over 30 Years In The Public Schools. She's Definitely Got Some War Stories.

I Never Know What My Next Move Will Be In Hollywood. It's Such An Unpredictable Town. People Get Jaded And Lost And I've Been Able To Stay A Float. I Think The Next Logical Step In My Career Would Be To Start My Own Filmmaking Empire Like (harvey Weinstein) And (bob Weinstein) Did So Many Years Ago. I Think If Only The Unions Weren't So Strict In Boston, I'd Set Up Shop There And Make Films Of A Certain Quality You Don't See Represented These Days. I'm Full Of Ideas And Dreams.

The First Star Wars Movie Had Come Out In 1977 And Had Become This Huge Phenomenon With All The Toys And Everything - It Just Kind Of Swept America.

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One Of The Things It Channelled In Me Was That Experience That I'd Had Of Wearing A Big Red Leather Thing On My Upper Torso In Daredevil With A Mask I Couldn't See Through And An Outfit That Completely Inhibited Movement, Feeling Humiliated And Like A Fool. I Just Recalled That.

You Have To Look Also To The Media, Where You Have A Vast Majority Of The Loudest And Most Influential Political Voices In America Media From People Who Came From The Entertainment World.

You Have To Be Kind To People. Treat Them Decently. There's No Excuse For Not.

It's Much Nicer To Be Praised Than To Be Damned. But You Have To Have A Certain Sense Of Your Own Priorities And Ideas About What Works And What Doesn't Because Otherwise, If You're Just Looking For Eternal Validation All The Time, You Can Be Motivated By The Wrong Things And I Don't Think It's As Personally Satisfying In Your Own Work.

When You Are In Your 20s And You're Not Married With Kids, You're Having Fun. But When You're In Your 30s And You're Not Married And Don't Have Kids, You Begin To Develop A Peter Pan Complex. As You Grow Older, You Have More Responsibilities And You Have To Step Up To Them.

I'm Trying To Make People Feel Welcome And Feel Valued.

[directing First Film:] I Was Terrified, It Was Really Very Scary Because There Is A Lot Of Responsibility. I Think I Was Terrified Because I Wanted It To Work So Much. A Lot Of Actors Direct Movies But I Thought The Stakes Were Kind Of Higher For Me Because I Really, Really Cared. [...] I Just Worked As Hard As I Possibly Could On Every Single Thing, Every Single Day. I Said That If This Failed It Would Not Be Because I Didn't Work As Hard As I Possibly Could...every Day.

I Find Forgiveness To Be Really Healthy.

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