Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for.
Aaron SorkinRead
I am truly at my happiest not when I am writing an aria for an actor or making a grand political or social point. I am at my happiest when I've figured out a fun way for somebody to slip on a banana peel.
Interpretation
True happiness comes from simple joys rather than grand achievements.
In this quote, Aaron Sorkin expresses that his deepest contentment is not found in the serious or high-stakes moments of life, such as writing an aria or addressing social issues, but instead in the lighter, more playful aspects of life, exemplified by the joy of creating a humorous moment like someone slipping on a banana peel. This emphasizes the idea that happiness can often be derived from the simplest, most unexpected sources of joy.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of finding joy in small things.
Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for.
The upside of web-based journalism is that everybody gets a chance. The downside is that everybody gets a chance.
I'll get cast occasionally as sort of the jerk version of myself, and I have fun doing that. But it's really better for everyone if I stay behind the camera.
Decisions are made by those who show up. Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world.
Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.
With 'The Social Network,' I got into it at first because frankly I thought there was a cool courtroom drama to be had with the intellectual properties. And then what further drew me in was that the most extraordinary social networking device ever created was created by the world's most antisocial person. I liked that story.
The belief that we can rely on shortcuts to happiness, joy, rapture, comfort, and ecstasy, rather than be entitled to these feelings by the exercise of personal strengths and virtues, leads to legions of people who, in the middle of great wealth, are starving spiritually.
Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.
Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labor when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.
I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.
I'm no Buddhist monk, and I can't say I'm in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I've written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn't want or need, not all I did.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.