You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of careful thought and consideration before taking action, especially in decision-making.
In this quote, Stanley Kubrick highlights the parallels between playing chess and making decisions in life. The excitement and urgency to act can lead to hasty choices, but true wisdom lies in pausing to reflect on the potential outcomes and exploring alternative options. This mindful approach can lead to better decisions and outcomes.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of strategic planning in business.
The reality of the final moment, just before shooting [the scene], is so powerful that all previous analysis must yield before the impressions you receive under these circumstances, and unless you use this feedback to your positive advantage, unless you adjust to it, adapt to it and accept the sometimes terrifying weaknesses it can expose, you can never realize the most out of your film.
Because I direct films, I have to live in a major English-speaking production center. That narrows it down to three places: Los Angeles, New York and London. I like New York, but it's inferior to London as a production center. Hollywood is best, but I don't like living there.
I've never achieved spectacular success with a film. My reputation has grown slowly. I suppose you could say that I'm a successful filmmaker-in that a number of people speak well of me. But none of my films have received unanimously positive reviews, and none have done blockbuster business.
A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.
The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.
Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.
There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.
There is no point in apportioning blame. What is done, is done.
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
You can fool a lot of yourself but you can't fool the soul.
Even though I am nearly deaf, I seem to be gifted with a kind of inner hearing which enables me to detect sounds and noises which the ordinary person does not hear.
I'm always saying something that's just the edge of something more.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.