Either you're growing or you're decaying; there's no middle ground. If you're standing still, you're decaying.
Alan ArkinRead
Every physicist knows that things connect with each other. To isolate things is not the way the universe works - winning best actor is arbitrary.
Interpretation
The universe is interconnected, and individual achievements can be seen as arbitrary.
In this quote, Alan Arkin emphasizes that the interconnectedness of all things in the universe means that isolating individual accomplishments is misleading. He suggests that accolades and achievements, such as winning an award, can feel arbitrary when viewed in the broader context of existence and the connections between individuals and their contributions.
In practice
In a speech about teamwork, one might quote this to highlight the importance of collaboration.
Either you're growing or you're decaying; there's no middle ground. If you're standing still, you're decaying.
I used to watch the world as if it was a performance and I would realize that certain things that people did moved me, and certain things didn't move me, and I tried to analyze, even at that age, six and seven and eight, why I was moved by certain things they did
If you want to be an actor and you love acting, you can do it whether you're doing something else or not. You can be connected with community theater or make your own little movies. But if you want to be a movie star, you've got a tough road ahead of you.
Everybody's career has ups and downs. I like to take chances; I don't like to stand still. And I don't give a damn what the market is interested in; I want to try things.
I don't believe in competitions between artists. This is insane. Who has the authority to say someone is better?
I love working if it's with people who are capable of having a good time. People with a little bit of enjoyment of what they do. If it's enormous pressure, and people feel that their lives are at stake, then it's agony. So I try to pick projects where I feel like I'm going to avoid those traps.
Under the continual contact with the pebbles my feet have become hardened and used to the ground. My body, almost constantly nude, no longer suffers from the sun. Civilization is falling from me little by little. I am beginning to think simply, to feel only very little hatred for my neighbor - rather, to love him.
Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.
Every woman knows that, regardless of all her other achievements, she is a failure if she is not beautiful.
He had one illusion - France; and one disillusion - mankind, including Frenchmen.
Los Angeles gives one the feeling of the future more strongly than any city I know of. A bad future, too, like something out of Fritz Lang's feeble imagination.
When feminism does not explicitly oppose racism, and when anti-racism does not incorporate opposition to patriarchy, race and gender politics often end up being antagonistic to each other, and both interests lose.
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