“A young artist can become popular more quickly with the Internet providing instant access to ones work. That might lead to more opportunity and an accelerated career. But it seems as if funding may be harder to come by and filmmakers are being prompted to give away their work for free in hopes to become part of the conversation.” GivingArtistOpportunityInternetFilmmakerInstant Author:Jillian Mayer
“Everyone is always trying to figure out the future of film distribution. I try and not spend too much time worrying about things like this and just try to focus on making the best work I can to entertain me and my friends.” TryingFilmWorryFocus Author:Jillian Mayer
“Change can only come from local citizens and politicians - it cannot be imposed by well-meaning foreigners - not least because a society like Afghanistan or Iraq is suspicious of outsiders and often resistant to change. I am not going to get drawn into the ethics of intervening in other countries. My concern is the practical question. Can you actually achieve change in this way? My guess is we can stop wars sometimes as in the Balkans and topple regimes - but that the other stuff - such as corruption is not within our power to effect and alter.” WarCountrySometimesAchievePoliticianEthicsConcernCorruptionAfghanistanOutsiders Author:Rory Stewart
“When you're a young person, you are biologically driven to believe you are immortal, and that's why you engage in all kinds of risky behavior you stop once you feel death's cruel breath on your neck. I think that as a straight white man in particular, I was tempted to believe that I was immortal and eternal because, after all, in this culture, straight white dudes are the heroes of every story that you see or read about with very rare exception. So how could the story go on without the hero, you know?” ThinkingMenBelieveKindCultureHeroBehaviorDrivenAll KindsExceptionImmortal Author:John Hodgman
“The understanding that we reach a point where we stop becoming something and start ending as something. That comes at different times in different points in different people's lives, and obviously there are lots of people who experience the presence of death much more keenly and much earlier than I did. But we all come to grips with it eventually.” PeopleDifferentUnderstanding Author:John Hodgman
“There is no metaphor for death. All comparisons are odious, but I'll do one anyway. We all have these moments of harsh clarity where we realize that something is gone, whether that is youth, whether that is someone we care about, whether that is where we literally lose someone we care about to death. Or we end a relationship that we thought would last forever, or have one ended for us. We all have these moments in life where it seems impossible to fill up the time that we have left for us, and yet we have to do it somehow.” MomentsCareRealizingForeverImpossibleYouthMetaphorClarityComparisonHarsh Author:John Hodgman
“Sports is a bloodless rehearsal of confrontation, and everyone shakes hands or high fives or fist bumps at the end to show that everything is okay.” SportsOkayConfrontation Author:John Hodgman
“I navigated the world as a hedge maze of constant fear and worry in which I might take the wrong turn and jeopardize the love of everyone around me and everyone on Earth. That's what I needed in order to survive.” WorldEarthWorryWrong TurnJeopardize Author:John Hodgman
“For many years, people would say, "Only child? Must have been terrible," and I wanted to say, "You are mentally ill, because it was the greatest." You got all the attention. You never had to share anything. No one ever ate your food. No one ever took your toys. But the unintended consequence was that I didn't appreciate that being universally loved was not only not required for happiness, but also not possible.” PeopleChildrenAttentionShareTerribleConsequenceAppreciateIll Author:John Hodgman
“My favorite season is autumn, and Maine is lovely for that reason. In Maine, autumn begins on July 29. That's when you start building a fire in the fireplace and the leaves literally start falling from the trees. It is a cold and rugged and a beautiful place that reminds you with its many death traps - its painfully cold oceans, its sharp, jagged beaches, and perilous cliffsides - that nature doesn't care whether you live or die.” ReasonCareBeautifulFallTreeBuildingColdOceanMy FavoriteLovelyBeachAutumnBeautiful Places Author:John Hodgman