"There was something so absorbing about that gift of reading. It could calm your mind and give you another world to be engaged in. Television was too distant; books were more intimate, like having friends and enjoying their company."
"But I ask myself sometimes, as I grow old, how many illusions do I have? Charlie and I used to say that when you're put in the grave, your illusions come out of whatever box you're in, they hover over your tombstone and evaporate into the sky. They're the last to go."
"There is a cold, clear determination about what Slade intends to do, the weight of that depression, the way I imagine you have to die spiritually, inside yourself, before you kill yourself."
" Objectively, I never knew what the fuck I was doing. It's that simple. I went from one thing to another. I'll never learn, and that's my problem. Or my gift. I don't learn things. I'm the first one to raise my hand high and say, "I don't know." Who wants to wallow in the pretense of knowing everything? What knowledge? What do I know, that I can sit with a pipe and expound on? I'm not Socrates." (This quote really resonates with me).
Charles Laughton was 84 and paraplegic from MS - he pointed to his heart and said to Pacino - "Al, you're right here. Don't worry about me. I got my dreams at night, I got my memories, and I got my imagination. I'll be okay." (I hope I have that kind of grace when I am 84).
"This life is a dream, as Shakespeare says. I think the saddest part about dying is that you lose your memories. Memories are like wings: they keep you flying, like a bird on the wind. If I'm lucky enough, if I get to heaven perhaps I'll get to reunite with my mother there. All I want is the chance to walk up to her, look in her eyes, and simply say, "Hey, Ma, see what happened to me?"
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