Tag: Comedy Books

I read “Mastery” by Robert Greene and here are the quotes I found most interesting. As always, if you like the quotes please buy the full book here.

“To the extent that we believe we can skip steps, avoid the process, magically gain power through political connections or easy formulas, or depend on our natural talents, we move against this grain and reverse our natural powers. We become slaves to time – as it passes, we grow weaker, less capable, trapped in some dead end career. We become captive to the opinions and fears of others.” (9)

“This intense connection and desires allows them to withstand the pain of the process – the self-doubts, the tedious hours of practice and study, the inevitable setbacks, the endless barbs from the envious. They develop a resiliency and confidence that others lack.” (12)

“Our levels of desire, patience, persistence, and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than sheer reasoning powers. Feel motivated and energized, we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive.” (12)

“A natural response when people feel overwhelmed is to retreat into various forms of passivity. If we don’t try too much in life, if we limit our circle of action, we can give ourselves the illusion of control. The less we attempt, the less chances of failure. If we can make it look like we are not really responsible for our fate, for what happens to us in life, then our apparent powerlessness is more palatable.” (13)

“First, you must see your attempt at attaining mastery as something extremely necessary and positive.” (14)

“Second, you must convince yourself of the following: people get the mind and qualify of brain that they deserve through their actions in life.” (14)

“In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it. Your interest must transcend the field itself and border on the religious.” (31)

“The more people there are crowded into a space, the harder it becomes to thrive there. Working in such a field will tend to wear you out as you struggle to get attention, to play the political games, to win scarce resources for yourself. You spend so much time at these games that you have little time left over for true mastery. You are seduced into such fields because you see others there making a living, treading the familiar path. You are not aware of how difficult such a life can be.” (35)

“The game you want to play is different: to instead find a niche in the ecology that you can dominate.” (35)

“The moment you rigidly follow a plan set in your youth, you lock yourself into a position, and the times will ruthlessly pass you by.” (40)

“Do not envy those who seem to be naturally gifted; it is often a curse, as such types rarely learn the value of diligence and focus, and they pay for this later in life.” (45)

“In the stories of the greatest Masters, we can inevitably detect a phase in their lives in which all of their future powers were in development, like the chrysalis of a butterfly. This part of their lives – a largely self-directed apprenticeship that last some five to ten years – receives little attention because it does not contain stories of great achievement or discovery.” (54)

“The goal of apprenticeship is not money, a good position, a title, or a diploma, but rather the transformation of your mind and character.” (55)

“If you impress people in these first months, it should be because of the seriousness of your desire to learn, not because you are trying to rise to the top before you are ready.” (57)

“It is essential that you being with one skill that you can master, and that serves as a foundation for acquiring others. You must avoid at all cost the idea that you can manage learning several skills at a time. You need to develop your powers of concentration, and understand that trying to multitask will be the death of the process.” (60)

“You will know when your apprenticeship is over by the feeling that you have nothing left to learn in this environment.” (63)

“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” (64)

“What is important when you are young is to train yourself to get by with little money and make the most of your youthful energy.” (66)

“It is often the height of wisdom to find the perfect mentor and offer your services as an assistant for free. Happy to exploit your cheap and eager spirit, such mentors will often divulge more than the usual trade secrets. In the end, by valuing learning above all else, you will set the stage for your creative expansion, and the money will soon come to you.” (68)

“Whenever you feel like you are settling into some circle, force yourself to shake things up and look for new challenges.” (71)

“What separates Masters from others is often something surprisingly simple. Whenever we learn a skill, we frequently reach a point of frustration – what we are learning seems beyond our capabilities. Giving in to these feelings, we unconsciously quit on ourselves before we actually give up.” (77)

“The difference is not simply a matter of determination, but more of trust and faith.” (77)

“Buried in their minds is the sensation of overcoming their frustrations and entering the cycle of accelerated returns. In moment of doubt in the present, the memory of the past experience rises to the surface. Filled with trust in the process, they trudge on well past the point at which others slow down or mentally quit.” (77)

“When it comes to mastering a skill, time is the magic ingredient.” (77)

“We generally follow what others have done, performing the accepted exercises for these skills. This is the path of amateurs. To attain mastery, you must adopt what we shall call Resistance Practice. The principle is simple – you go in the opposite direction of all of your natural tendencies when it comes to practice.” (80)

“Resist the temptation to be nice to yourself. You become your own worst critic; you see your work as if through the eyes of others. You recognize your weaknesses, precisely the elements you are not good at. Those are the aspects you give precedence to in your practice. You find a kind of perverse pleasure in moving past the pain this might bring. Second, you resist the lure of easing up on your focus. You train yourself to concentrate in practice with double the intensity, as if it were the real thing times two. In devising your own routines, you become as creative as possible. You invent exercises that work upon your weaknesses. You give yourself arbitrary deadlines to meet certain standards, constantly pushing yourself past perceived limits. In this way you develop your own standards for excellence, generally higher than those of others.” (81)

“There are two kinds of failure. The first come form never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done. In fact, it is a curse to have everything go right on your first attempt. You will fail to question the element of luck, making you think that you have the golden touch. When you do inevitably fail, it will confuse and demoralize you past the point of learning.” (84)

“In this new age, those who follow a rigid, singular path in their youth often find themselves in a career dead end in their forties, or overwhelmed with boredom. The wide ranging apprenticeship of your twenties will yield the opposite – expanding possibilities as you get older. “(90)

“Your goal is always to surpass your mentors in mastery and brilliance.” (93)

“To learn requires a sense of humility. We must admit that there are people out there who know our field much more deeply than we do. Their superiority is not a function of natural talent or privilege, but rather of time and experience. Their authority in the field is not based on politics or trickery. It is very real.” (102)

“You may not want to go in search of mentors until you have acquired some elementary skills and discipline that you can rely upon to interest them.” (105)

“If you work on yourself first, developing a solid work ethic and organizational skills, eventually the right teacher will appear in your life. Word will spread through the proper channels of your efficiency and your hunger to learn, and opportunities will come your way.” (106)

“The problem with all students is that they inevitably stop somewhere. They hear an idea and they hold on to it until it becomes dead; they want to flatter themselves that they know the truth. But rue Zen never stops, never congeals into such truths. That is why everyone must constantly be pushed to the abyss, starting over and feeling their utter worthlessness as a student. Without suffering and doubts, the mind will come to rest on clichés and stay there, until the spirit dies as well.” (115)

“Masters are those who by nature have suffered to get to where they are. They have experienced endless criticisms of their work, doubts about their progress, setbacks along the way. They know deep in their bones what is required to get to the creative phase and beyond.” (116)

“It is often a curse to learn under someone so brilliant and accomplished – your own confidence becomes crushed as you struggle to follow all their great ideas.” (118)

“Even as we listen and incorporate the ideas of our mentors, we must slowly cultivate some distance from them.” (119)

“Gaining their respect for how teachable you are, they will fall a bit under your spell.” (122)

“You must allow everyone the right to exist in accordance with the character he has, whatever it turns out to be: and all you should strive to do is to make use of this character in such a way as its kind of nature permits, rather than to hope for any alteration in it, or to condemn it offhand for what it is.” (134)

“You must turn this around and being with yourself – how you saw in others qualities they did not possess, or how you ignored signs of a dark side to their nature.” (137)

“The most effective attitude to adopt is one of supreme acceptance. The world is full of people with different characters and temperaments. We all have a dark side, a tendency to manipulate, and aggressive desires. The most dangerous types are those who repress their desires or deny the existence of them, often acting them out in the most underhanded ways. Some people have dark qualities that are especially pronounced. You cannot change such people at their core, but must merely avoid becoming their victim. You are an observer of the human comedy, and by being as tolerant as possible, you gain a much greater ability to understand people and to influence their behavior when necessary.” (137)

“The choice of mate or partner can be quite eloquent too, particularly if it seems slightly inconsistent with the character they try to project. In this choice they can reveal unmet needs from childhood, a desire for power and control, a low self-image, and other qualities they normally seek to disguise.” (140)

“Often it is the quiet ones, those who give out less at first glance, who hide greater depths, and who secretly wield greater power.” (140)

“People are in a state of continual flux. You must not let your ideas about them harden into a set impression. You are continually observing them and bringing your readings of them up to date.” (140)

“Most of us have these negative qualities – Envy, Conformism, Rigidity, Self-obsessiveness, Laziness, Flightiness, and Passive Aggression – in relatively mild doses. But in a group setting, there will inevitably be people who have one or more of these qualities to a high enough degree that they can become very destructive.” (141)

“People who praise you too much or who become overly friendly in the first stages of knowing you are often envious and are getting closer in order to hurt you. You should be wary of such behavior. Also, if you detect unusual levels of insecurity in a person, he or she will certainly be more prone to envy.” (141)

“If you have a gift for a certain skill, you should make a point of occasionally displaying some weakness in another area, avoiding the great danger of appearing too perfect, too talented.” (142)

“You must be careful not to boast of any success, and if necessary, to ascribe it to just good luck on your part. It is always wise to occasionally reveal your own insecurities, which will humanize you in other people’s eyes. Self-deprecating humor will work wonders as well. You must be particularly careful to never make people feel stupid in your presence. Intelligence is the most sensitive trigger point for envy. In general, it is by standing out too much that you will spark this ugly emotion, and so it is best to maintain a nonthreatening exterior and to blend in well with the group, at least until you are so successful it no longer matters.” (142)

“In your interactions with people, find a way to make the conversations revolve around them and their interests, all of which will go far to winning them to your side.” (144)

“You must never assume that what people say or do in a particular moment is a statement of their permanent desires.” (145)

“To develop your intellectual powers at the expense of the social is to retard your own progress to mastery, and limit the full range of your creative powers.” (146)

“In the course of your life you will be continually encountering fools. There are simply too many to avoid. We can classify people as fools by the following rubric: when it comes to practical life, what should matter is getting long term results, and getting the work done in as efficient and creative a manner as possible. That should be the supreme value that guides people’s action. But fools carry with them a different scale of values. They place more importance on short-term matters – grabbing immediate money, getting attention from the public or media, and looking good. They are ruled by their ego and insecurities. They tend to enjoy drama and political intrigue for their own sake. When they criticize, they always emphasize matters that are irrelevant to the overall picture or argument. They are more interested in their career and position than in the truth. You can distinguish them by how little they get done, or by how hard they make it for others to get results. They lack a certain common sense, getting worked up about things that are not really important while ignoring problems that will spell doom in the long term.” (163)

“All of us have foolish sides, moments in which we lose our heads and think more of our ego or short-term goals. It is human nature. Seeing this foolishness within you, you can then accept it in others.” (163)

“Masters and those who display a high level of creative energy are simply people who manage to retain a sizable portion of their childhood spirit despite the pressures and demands of adulthood.” (176)

“Your emotional commitment to what you are doing will be translated directly into your work. If you go at your work with half a heart, it will show in the lackluster results and in the laggard way in which you reach the end. If you are doing something primarily for money and without a real emotional commitment, it will translate into something that lacks a soul and that has no connection to you. You may not see this, but you can be sure that the public will feel it and that they will receive your work in the same lackluster spiriti it was created in. If you are excited and obsessive in the hunt, it will show in the details. If your work comes from a place deep within, its authenticity will be communicated.” (180)

“The ability to endure and even embrace mysteries and uncertainties is called negative capability. Cultivating Negative Capability will be the single most important factor in your success as a creative thinker… To put Negative capability into practice, you must develop the habit of suspending the need to judge everything that crosses your path. Your consider and even momentarily entertain viewpoints opposite to your own, seeing how they feel. You observe a person or event for a length of time, deliberately holding yourself back form forming an opinion… You do anything to break up your normal train of thinking and your sense that you already know the truth.” (182-183)

“To allow for serendipity 1) widen your search as far as possible 2) maintain an openness and looseness of spirit.” (184-185)

“In business, the natural tendency is to look at what is already out there in the marketplace and to think of how we can make it better or cheaper. The real trick – the equivalent of seeing the negative cue – is to focus our attention on some need that is not currently being met, on what is absent.” (194)

“The emotions we experience at any time have an inordinate influence on how we perceive the world. If we feel afraid, we tend to see more of the potential dangers in some action. If we feel particularly bold, we tend to ignore the potential risks.” (195)

“Masters inevitably possess another quality that complicates the work process: They are not easily satisfied by what they are doing. While able to feel excitement, they also feel doubt about the worthiness of their work. They have high internal standards. As they progress, they being to detect flaws and difficulties in their original idea that they had not foreseen.” (199)

“The feeling that we have endless time to complete our work has an insidious and debilitating effect on our minds.” (201)

“The best way to neutralize our natural impatience is to cultivate a kind of pleasure in pain – like an athlete, you come to enjoy rigorous practice, pushing past your limits, and resisting the easy way out.” (204)

“If we learn to handle criticism well, it can strengthen us and help us become aware of flaws in our work.” (204)

“You must have some perspective. There are always greater geniuses out there than yourself. Luck certainly played a role, as did the help of your mentor and all those in the past who paved the way. What must ultimately motivate you is the work itself and the process. Public attention is actually a nuisance and a distraction. Such an attitude is the only defense against falling into the trap set by our ego.” (204)

“The extreme paradox is that those who impress the most with their individuality – John Coltrane at the top – are the ones who first completely submerge their character in a long apprenticeship.” (209)

“Anyone who would spend ten years absorbing the techniques and conventions of their filed, trying them out, mastering them, exploring and personalizing them, would inevitably find their authentic voice and give birth to something unique and expressive.” (209)

“To combat this, Calatrava would maintain an attitude of constant dissatisfaction. The drawings were never quite right. They had to be continually improved and perfected. By pushing for perfection and holding on to this constant feeling of uncertainty, the project never froze into something rigid and lifeless. It had to feel alive in the moment, as his brush touched the paper. If what he was designing began to feel dead in any way, it was time to start over. This not only required tremendous patience on his part, but a good deal of courage, as he wiped out the work of several months.” (223)

“By creating something new you will create your own audience, and attain the ultimate position of power in culture.” (228)

“Your project or the problem you are solving should always be connected to something larger – a bigger question, an overarching idea, an inspiring goal. Whenever your work begins to feel stale, you must return to the larger purpose and goal that impelled you in the first place.” (231)

“By constantly reminding yourself of your purpose, you will prevent yourself from fetishizing certain techniques or from becoming overly obsessed with trivial details.” (231)

“To create a meaningful work of art or to make a discovery or invention requires great discipline, self-control, and emotional stability. It requires mastering the forms of your field. Drugs and madness only destroy such powers.” (246)

“You must see every setback, failure, or hardship as a trial along the way, as seeds that are being planted for further cultivation, if you know how to grow them. No moment is wasted if you pay attention and learn the lessons contained in every experience.” (261)

“In our journey from apprenticeship to mastery we must patiently learn the various parts and skills that are required, never looking too far ahead.” (265)

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.” -Albert Einstein (269)

“Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge.” (269)

“Masters decide to forge their own route, one that others will see as unconventional, but that suits their own spirit and rhythms and leads them closer to discovering the hidden truths of their objects of study. This key choice takes self-confidence and self-awareness-the X factor that is necessary for attaining mastery.” (270)

“A key component in the process is determining your mental and psychological strengths and working with them. To rise to the level of mastery requires many hours of dedicated focus and practice. You cannot get there if your work brings you no joy and you are constantly struggling to overcome your own weaknesses. You must look deep within and come to an understanding of these particular strengths and weaknesses your possess, being as realistic as possible. Knowing your strengths, you can lean on them with utmost intensity. Once you start in this direction, you will gain momentum. You will not be burdened by conventions, and you will not be slowed down by having to deal with skills that go against your inclinations and strengths. N this way, your creative and intuitive powers will be naturally awakened.” (279)

“A character in a novel, for instance, will come to life for the reader if the writer has put great effort into imagining the details of that character. The writer does not need to literally lay out these details; readers will feel it in the work and will intuit the level of research that went into the creation of it.” (294)

“Mastery is not a question of genetics or luck, but of following your natural inclinations and the deep desire that stirs you from within.” (310)

If you liked the quotes, please buy the book here.

I recently finished reading “Save The Cat: The Last Book On Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need” by Blake Snyder. If you’re at all interested in screenwriting, I highly recommend reading this book cover to cover. The parts I found most interesting are below. You can buy the book here.

“Liking the person we go on a journey with is the single most important element in drawing us into the story.” (xv)

“The “Save the Cat” scene is where we meet the hero and the hero does something – like saving a cat – that defines who he is and makes us, the audience, like him.” (xv)

“Insisting on irony in your logline is a good place to find out what’s missing. Maybe you don’t have a good movie yet.” (7)

“The second most important elemtn that a good logline has is that you must be able to see a whole movie in it.” (7)

“A good logline, in addition to pulling you in, has to offer the promise of more.” (7)

“If you don’t have the logline, maybe you should rethink your whole movie.” (8)

“Another thing a good logline has, that is important in attracting studio buyers, is a built-in sense of who it’s for and what it’s going to cost.” (8)

“A great title must have irony and tell the tale.” (9)

“A great title must say what it is.” (10)

“To be a screenwriter is to deal with an ongoing tug of war between breathtaking megalomania and insecurity so deep it takes years of therapy just to be able to say “I’m a writer” out loud.” (11)

“When it was put into a pithy logline form, the conflicts were brought into sharper focus too. They had to! Or else the logline wouldn’t work. The characters became more distinct, the story became more clearly defined, and the logline ultimately made the actual writing easier.” (12)

“You find out more about your movie by talking to people one-on-one than having them read it.” (13)

“Logline must satisfy four basic elements to be effective.
1. Irony. It must be in some way ironic and emotionally involving – a dramatic situation that is like an itch you have to scratch.
2. A compelling mental picture. It must bloom in your mind when you hear it. A whole movie must be implied, often including a time frame.
3. Audience and cost. It must demarcate the tone, the target audience, and the sense of cost, so buyers will know if it can make a profit.
4. A killer title. The one-two punch of a good logline must include a great title, one that “says what it is” and does so in a clever way.” (17)

“Movies must travel and be understood everywhere – over half of your market is now outside the U.S.” (17)

“Insisting on those twists, defying that inner voice that says “Oh, well, no one will notice,” is a universal struggle that good storytellers have been fighting forever.” (21)

“The badder the bad guy, the greater the heroics. So make the bad guy as bad as possible – always!” (32)

“A great logline must also include: an adjective to describe the hero, and adjective to describe the bad guy, and… a compelling goal we identify with as human beings.” (48)

“The trick is to create heroes who: offer the most conflict in that situation, have the longest way to go emotionally and… are the most demographically pleasing.” (52)

“Primal urges get our attention. Survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, fear of death grab us. The best ideas and the best characters in the lead roles must have basic needs, wants, and desires. Basic, basic!” (54)

“Don’t cast the movie before you’ve sold the script! Don’t write parts for certain actors! Don’t get married to the idea of one particular actor doing the part – you’ll always be disappointed.” (56)

“Your leads should be able to be played by many actors and actresses.” (57)

“If you always remember to write for the archetype, and not the star, the casting will take care of itself.” (58)

“The logline is your story’s code, its DNA, the one constant that has to be true. If it’s good, if it has all the earmarks of a winning idea, then it should give you everything you need to guide you in writing the screenplay.” (63)

“Somewhere in the first five minutes of a well structured screenplay, someone (usually not the main character) will pose a question or make a statement (usually to the main character) that is the theme of the movie.” (73)

“A good screenplay is an argument posed by the screenwriter, the pros and cons of living a particular kind of life, or pursuing a particular goal.” (73)

“The hero cannot be lured, tricked, or drift into Act Two. The hero must make the decision himself.” (79)

“The midpoint is either false victory or false defeat.” (84)

“Put two things on each note card: +/- and ><. These two symbols should be written in a color pen you have not used and put at the bottom of each card.

The >< denotes conflict.

The +/- sign represents the emotional change you must execute in each scene. Believe it or not, an emotional change like this must occur in every scene. And if you don’t have it, you don’t know what the scene is about. Until you figure out the emotional change for each of the 40 cards using this simple +/- code, don’t start. And if you can’t figure it out, throw the card away. odds are it’s wrong.” (110-111)

“A screenwriter must be mindful of getting the audience ‘in sync’ with the plight of the hero from the very start.” (121)

“When you have a semi-bad guy as your hero – just make his antagonist worse!!” (122)

“You must take the time to frame the hero’s situation in a way that makes us root ofr him, no matter who he is or what he does.” (123)

“The Pope in the Pool gives us something to look at that takes the sting out of telling us what we need to know.” (125)

“Simple is better. One concept at a time, please.” (132)

“The Covenant of the Arc is the screenwriting law that says: Every single character in your movie must change in the course of your story. The only character who don’t change are the bad guys. But the hero and his friends change a lot.” (134)

“Bring the press in with care. Unless your movie involves a worldwide problem and we follow stories with characters all over the world, and it’s important for them all to know about each other, Keep The Press Out.” (139)

“As long as I maintain the attitude that he next script will be my best yet, and keep being excited about the process, I know I can’t fail.” (144)

“A hero never asks questions! The hero knows and others aroudn him look to him for answers, not the other way around.” (146)

“The hero and the bad guy are a matched set and should be of equal skill and strength, with the bad guy being just slightly more powerful than the hero because he is willing to go to any lengths to win.” (149)

“Whether it’s a comedy or a drama, wringing out the emotions of the audience in the name of the game.” (152)

“If your script feels one-note emotionally, go back and flesh it out using all the colors in the palette. Where is your lust scene/ Where is your frustration scene? Where is your scary scene?” (153)

“Bad Dialogue Test: Take a page of your script and cover up the names of the people speaking. Now read the repartee as it goes back and forth between two or more characters. Can you tell who is speaking without seeing the name above the dialogue?” (154)

“Selling a script has a lot more to do with thinking of your screenplay as a “business plan” than ever before.” (164)

“Here are a few signs that you are making progress in marketing you:
– An agent or producer says your project is not for him, but to keep him in mind for future scripts.
– You talk to an agent or producer that you like.
– You have whittled a list of 50 possibles down to three maybes. Those 47 no’s had to be gotten through. Every no is one step closer to a yes. But by God you did the work! The yes is that much nearer.
– You get a referral. Everyone you contact must be asked this question at some point in the process of saying no: “Is there anyone else you can recommend that I contact about my career?” Referrals are gold and everyone I know is thrilled to oblige with one. Believe it or not, people want to help you succeed.” (171)

“They buy into someone’s “heat” and ignore others, more talented, who are unknown. They often don’t read scripts thoroughly. And they are more interested in the headline and the opportunity you represent than your growth as an artist. But that’s the nature of business.” (180)

“The powers-that-be can take away a lot of things. They can buy your script and fire you, or rewrite it into oblivion, but they can’t take away your ability to get up off the mat and come back swinging – better and smarter than you were before.” (180)

“You must try to find the fun in everything you write. Because having fun lets you know you’re on the right track.” (181)

If you liked the quotes, please buy the book here.

Here’s the quotes I found most interesting from “The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You can Do to Get More of It” by  Kelly McGonigal. I consider this a comedy book because so many of us wish we were more consistent about writing and doing other comedy related things. This book explains some of the usual tricks our mind plays on us to keep us from doing what we really want. I highly recommend it. So if you find the quotes interesting, please buy the book here.

“Neuroscientists have discovered that when you ask the brain to meditate, it gets better not just at meditating, but at a wide range of self-control skills, including attention, focus, stress management, impulse control, and self-awareness.” (24)

“Heart rate variability is such a good index of willpower that you can use it to predict who will resist temptation, and who will give in.” (38)

“Anxiety, anger, depression, and loneliness are all ssociated with lower heart rate variability and less self-control.” (39)

“Heart rate variability steadily increaes as your breathing rate drops below twelve per minute.” (40)

“If you tell yourself that you are too tired or don’t have the time to exercise, start thinking of exercise as something that restores, not drains, your energy and willpower.” (45)

“Because self-control also demands high levels of energy, some scientists speculate that chronic self-control – like chronic stress – can increase your chances of getting sick by diverting resources from the immune system. You heard it here first: Too much willpower can actually be bad for your health.” (49)

“Obesity rates are much higher among those who sleep for less than six hours a night, in part because sleep deprivation interferes with how the brian and body use energy.” (53)

“People who are on a diet are more likely to cheat on their spouse. It’s as if there’s only so much willpower to go around. Once exhausted, you are left defenseless against temptation – or at least disadvantaged.” (56)

“It was as if every act of willpower was drawing from the same source of strength, leaving people weaker with each successful act of self-control.” (57)

“Boosting blood sugar restored willpower.” (60)

“People with low blood sugar are also more likely to rely on stereotypes and less likely to donate money to charity or help a stranger. It is as if running low on energy biases us to be the worst versions of ourselves. In contrast, giving participants a sugar boost turns them back into the best versions of themselves: more persistent and less impulsive; more thoughtful and less selfish.” (61)

“Studies show that diet soda consumption is associated with weight gain, not weight loss.” (63)

“To prevent starvation, the brain shifts to a more risk-taking, impulsive state. Indeed, studies show that modern humans are more likely to take any kind of risk when they’re hungry. For example, people make riskier investments when they’re hungry, and are more willing to “diversify their mating strategies” (cheat) after a fast.” (64-65)

“The mere promise that practice would improve performance on a difficult task helped the students push past willpower exhaustion.” (74)

“If you think that not smoking is going to be as hard one year from now as it is that first day of nicotine withdrawal, when you would claw your own eyes out fo ra cigarette, you’re much more likely to give up. But if you can imagine a time when saying no will be second nature, you’ll be more willing to stick out the temporary misery.” (74)

“When you tell yourself that exercising, saving money, or giving up smoking is the right thing to do – not something that will help you meet your goals – you’re less likely to do it consistently.” (87)

“While most of us believe that making progress on our goals spurs us on to greater success, psychologists know we are all too quick to use progress as an excuse for taking it easy.” (89)

“Studies have shown that making progress on a goal motivates people to engage in goal-sabotaging behavior.” (89)

“Progress can be motivating, and even inspire future self-control, but only if you view your actions as evidence that you are committed to your goal. In other words, you need to look at what you have done and conclude that you must really care about your goal, so much so that you want to do even more to reach it.” (90)

“When people are asked, “How much progress do you feel you have made on your goal?” they are more likely to then do something that conflicts with that goal, like skip the gym the next day, hang out with friends instead of studying, or buy something expensive. In contrast, people who are asked, “How committed do you feel to your goal?” are not tempted by the conflicting behavior.” (90)

“When McDonald’s added healthier items to its menu, sales of Big Macs skyrocketed.” (92)

“We wrongly but persistently expect to make different decisions tomorrow than we do today.” (93)

“Using a daily rule also helps you see through the illusion that what you do tomorrow will be totally different from what you do today.” (97)

“Evolution doesn’t give a damn about happiness itself, but will use the promise of happiness to keep us struggling to stay alive.” (113)

“A study found that playing a video game led to dopamine increases equivalent to amphetamine use – and it’s this dopamine rush that makes both so addictive. The unpredictability of scoring or advancing keeps your dopamine neurons firing, and you glued to your seat.” (115)

“We will find that the promise of reward can be as stressful as it is delightful. Desire doesn’t always make us feel good – sometimes it makes us feel downright rotten. That’s because dopamine’s primary function is to make us pursue happiness, not ot make us happy. It doesn’t mind putting a little pressure on us – even if that means making us unhappy in the process.” (125)

“When we find ourselves in a similar state, we attribute the pleasure to whatever triggered the response, and the stress to not yet having it. We fail to recognize that the object of our desire is causing both the anticipated pleasure and the stress.” (126)

“The promise of reward doesn’t guarantee happiness, but no promise of reward guarantees unhappiness. Listen to the promise of reward and we give in to temptation. Without the promise of reward, we have no motivation.” (131)

“The brain, it turns out, is especially susceptible to temptation when we’re feeling bad.” (135)

“According to the American Psychological Association, the most effective stress-relief strategies are exercising or playing sports, praying or attending a religious service, reading, listening to music, spending time with friends or family, getting a massage, going outside of ra walk, meditating or doing yoga, and spending time with a creative hobby. (The least effective strategies are gambling, shopping, smoking, drinking, eating, playing video games, surfing the Internet, and watching TV or movies for more than two hours.” (137)

“Studies show that being reminded of our mortality makes us more susceptible to all sorts of temptations, as we look for hope and security in the things that promise reward and relief.” (140)

“Reports of death on the news make viewers respond more positively to advertisements for status products, like luxury cars and Rolex watches.” (140)

“The worse a person felt about how much they drank the night before, the more they drank that night and the next.” (144)

“It’s forgiveness, not guilt, that increases accountability. Researchers have found that taking a self-compassionate point of view on a personal failure makes people more likely to take personal responsibility for the failure than when they take a self-critical point of view.” (148)

“Research shows that predicting how and when you might be tempted to break your vow increases the chances that you will keep a resolution.” (154)

“Brain-imaging studies show that we even use different regions of the brain to think about our present selves and our future selves.” (175)

“Both bad habits and positive change can spread from person to person like germs, and nobody is completely immune.” (186)

“You can’t catch a brand-new goal from a brief exposure the way you can catch a flu virus. A nonsmoker is not going to catch a nicotine craving when a friend pulls out a cigarette. But another person’s behavior can activate a goal in your mind that was not currently in charge of your choices.” (191)

“We’ve been trained since birth to do it our way, to stand out from the crowd, to be a leader, not a follower. And yet our cultural obsession with independence cannot suppress our human desire to fit in. Our society may praise being above the influence of others, but we cannot separate ourselves from our social instincts.” (197)

“When it comes to social proof, what we think other people do matters even more than what they actually do.” (200)

“Surrounding yourself with people who share your commitment to your goals will make it feel like the norm.” (201)

“Research shows that being kicked out of the tribe drains willpower.” (205)

“When you try to push a thought away, and it keeps coming back to your mind, you are more likely to assume that it must be true.” (213)

“If we want to save ourselves from mental suffering, we need to make peace with those thoughts, not push them away.” (216)

“You’re accepting that thoughts come and go, and that you can’t always control what thoughts come to mind. You don’t have to automatically accept the contest of the thought.” (219)

“Dieters who suppress thoughts about food have the least control around food.” (223)

“If there is a secret for greater self-control, the science points to one thing: the power of paying attention. It’s training the midn to recognize when you’re making a choice, rather than running on autopilot. It’s noticing how you give yourself permission to procrastinate, or how you use good behavior to justify self-indulgence. It’s realizing that the promise of reward doesn’t always deliver, and that your future self is not a superhero or a stranger. It’s seeing what in your world – from sales gimmicks to social proof – is shaping your behavior. It’s staying put and sensing a craving when you’d rather distract yourself or give in. It’s remembering what you really want, and knowing what really makes you feel better. Self-awareness is the one “self” you can always count on to help you do what is difficult, and what matters most. And that is the best definition of willpower I can think of.” (237)

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Here’s the parts of “20 Master Plots and How To Build Them” by Ronald B. Tobias that I found most interesting. As always, if you like the quotes, please buy the book here.

“Story, then, is a chronicle of events. The listener wants to know what comes next.
Plot is more than just a chronicle of events. THe listener asks a different question: “WHy does this happen?”
Story is a series of events strugn like beads on a string. (This happened and then this happened and then…)
Plot is a chain of cause-and-effect relationships that constantly create a pattern of unified action and behavior. Plot involves the reader in the game of “Why?”
Story requires only curiosity to know what will happen next.
Plot requires the ability to remember what has already happened, to figure out the relationships between events and people, and to try to project the outcome.” (12)

“Andre Gide pointed out that the first condition of art was that it contain nothing unessential.” (25)

“The true comic novel, Anthony Burgess pointed out, was the one that had to do with people’s recognition of their unimportance in the universe.” (36)

“The writer is a slave, not a god. You’re a slave to your characters and to the premise of your story. If you must find a model to represent the status of the author, it would be not as a god but as a referee.” (42)

“If you use your characters to say what you want them to say, you’re writing propaganda. If your characters say waht they want to say, you’re writing fiction.” (43)

“If you think it’s the author’s responsibility to tell the best story possible and not preach, you have little choice but ot present a situation that includes both sides of the argument sympathetically. Only then is your character between a rock and a hard place.” (46)

“As a writer, you aren’t concerned with teaching your reader the “right’ thing to do under these circumstances. You’re concerned with putting the reader in the shoes of your protagonist, making the reader “feel” for Sandy and understand the complexity of her dilemma, so the reader understands that there are no easy solutions and that someone, anyone, who has the misfortune to have this happen would suffer terribly.” (47)

“Mickey Spillane once said, “I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers.”” (117)

“We don’t identify with Judah Ben-Hur as strongly as we identify with the poor slob Rocky. Why not? Because Ben Hur is on a higher emotional and intellectual plane than most of us. We respect what he represents, but he isn’t really one of us. Rock is. He’s heroice in ways we can feel.” (132)

“If you want your reader to feel empathy for your protagonist, make sure that her emotional and/or intellectual plane is equal to or lower than the reader’s. If your reader feels your protagonist is superior, he won’t make the psychic connection. Part of this is vicarious; the reader wants your hero to be like him, at least symbolically. She’s no great genius, she’s a common person – someone your reader can relate to.” (132)

“The more a reader knows about the character, the less the character is a part of the reader’s world and more a part of his own world.” (173)

“You can’t just turn a character around 180 degrees and reverse her attitudes and actions by a simple event. You must show convincingly how the character could get from point A to point Z.” (196)

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I recently finished reading Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. I highly recommend this interview style book to anyone who’s interested in the show and its history. As usual here’s the quotes I found interesting, but if you like it please buy the book.

Jane Curtin: “In order to do that kind of a show or any kind of a comedy show, you have to have arrogance and you have to have adrenaline.” (54)

Lorne Michaels: “We wanted to redefine comedy the way the Beatles redefined what being a pop star was. That required not pandering, and it also required removing neediness, the need to please. It was like, we’re only going to please those people who are like us. The presumption was there were a lot of people like us. And that turned out to be so.” (79)

Alan Zweibel: “The one rule that we had, if there was a rule, was if we make each other laugh we’ll put it on television and hopefully other people will find it funny and tell their friends. So there was a purity about the intent.” (96)

John Landis: “My secretary came in and she said, “Elvis is dead,” and Michael O’Donoghue said, “Good career move.”” (112)

Andrew Smith: “The first group that came through before me didn’t know how big they were going to be, so they were much freer and much more open and thus, I thought, a lot funnier than the subsequent people.” (206)

Pam Norris: “I’ve sort of learned, in the subsequent twenty years I’ve been in show business, that people just aren’t that clever, and sometimes things that look like clever schemes are just people stumbling over their own feet.” (217)

Tim Kazurinsky: “If you have one line it’s harder than if you have a big part. The confidence erodes week by week, and it can just destroy people. And that was a hard thing to watch.” (244)

Barry Blaustein: “Pretty good rule of thumb: If you’re laughing when you’re writing it, it will be funny.” (250)

Bob Tischler: “Larry David came on, and because of who Larry is – and one thing Larry is is always true to himself – he did not compromise.” (287)

Tom Hanks: “It’s horrifying. And yet it’s the most exhilarating thing, like being strapped inside of a huge explosive rocket ship and you’re waiting for the countdown to go and it just might blow you to kingdom come or it might take you to the moon.” (323)

Carol Leifer: “I remember Lorne really clearly in one meeting saying he always hated the funny-name joke, you know, when a character had a funny name, like a punny name. That kind of thing. It’s such an indicator of an amateur.” (327)

Warren Littlefield: “One of the questions you have to ask yourself is, “all right, kill it, but what’s your plan?” And sometimes faced with “what’s your plan,” you look at it in a different light.” (329)

Lisa Kudrow: “There’ve been a couple things that I didn’t get or got fired from where friends of mine who had a little more experience said, “It’s always a blessing when a door closes, because another door is going to open.” And there’s no such thing as your whole career being decided in one night. I just kept believing that iw as being saved by not doing Saturday Night live to do something else.” (386)

James Downey: “I always thought that if comedy is going to confuse anybody, by rights it should be the stupider people. You shouldn’t be punished for knowing more.” (416)

Norm Macdonald: “I wanted to be a writer and performer. I wasn’t a very good writer and I wasn’t a very good performer, but I could be a writer-performer. And the one place I could do that as SNL, because Lorne was always good with letting writers perform if they were funny.” (434)

Lorne Michaels: “I used to say that you get only so many hours that you can be with someone in a lifetime, and you can kind of use it all up in a very intense four or five years or you can spread it over a lifetime. Friendship really needs distance and space.” (438)

Lorne Michaels: “There’s an old Hebrew proverb that if you have six Jews in a town, you have seven synagogues. And I think it’s about the same with writers.” (450)

Steve Higgins: “If you like everything in the show, then that’s not a good show. If you love every single thing, there’s something wrong.” (451)

Norm Macdonald: “I didn’t care about the audience reaction at all. It would have been fine with me if we’d never rehearsed it and I could just do the jokes that I thought were funny, because I have more faith in me and Jim than I did in any audience. I just like doing jokes I like, and if the audience doesn’t like them, then they’re wrong, not me.” (454)

Don Ohlmeyer: “When Saturday night Live is really good, they do care what the audience thinks. And when Saturday Night Live is not really good, they’re kind of doing it for themselves and their pals.” (455)

Chevy Chase: “I’m just suggesting that that’s a quality that lends itself to being successful, as an “Update” guy and as an actor on Saturday Night Live, which is not caring whether people say you’re good or not, only that you have your integrity, and that you think it’s good.” (455)

Norm Macdonald: “I hate applause. I don’t like an audience applauding because to me that’s like a cheap kind of high… And while you can applaud voluntarily, you can’t laugh voluntarily – you have to laugh involuntarily – so I hate when an audience applauds. I don’t want to say things that an audience will agree with, I don’t want to say anything that an audience already thinks.” (456)

Norm Macdonald: “Lorne had alays told me, “in the show, you have to have an exit strategy.” Which is a way to leave the show in exactly the right way to move on in show business.” (462)

Colin Quinn: “Part of being a comedian is the delusion that you should be onstage at all times. Comedians could watch like Robin Williams and Chris Rock go on and the whole audience go crazy, and the whole time I know what they’re thinking – even the youngest new guys: “I should come to work this crowd. I’m telling you, I could kill right now.” That’s how comedians think.” (464)

Chris Kattan: “until you kind of let it all go, and then you just relax and you’re a better performer.” (481)

Jimmy Fallon: “They’re excited not about writing it, but about what the audience’s reaction will be. It’s kind of exciting that way for the writers. Writing itself is tedious. No one ever really enjoys writing until it’s done.” (502)

Mike Shoemaker: “When you’re a producer your job is talking to people and getting them to do things you want them to do and yet having them feel that it’s their choice and that they’re not being forced.” (530)

Gwyneth Paltrow: “My theory is that you kind of stop growing at the age you are when you become famous.” (548)

Darrell Hammond: “I try to improve myself every week. It’s the only hope I have of making it in show business is to improve. I have to be better than I was. That’s the way I look at it, because i’m not a glamour person.” (549)

James Downey: “If the show is bad, everyone knows instantly that it’s bad. But if it starts to get good again, it seems to take like four years for the word to get around.” (552)

Lorne Michaels: “I’d much rather my life be perceived as glamorous or stylish than as one of an enormous amount of work that is unceasing. It’s a choice. Either you try to make it look easy or you emphasize how hard it is. My dad never complained – and I admired that.” (555)

Craig Kellem: “Lorne just figured out what he wanted to do and somehow his willpower outlasted everybody else’s resistance.” (565)

Jon Stewart: “I think the thing that probably srikes me most is, here’s a guy who clearly doesn’t have to work this hard but still does. And you can only attribute that to either he’s insane or he’s still excited about the show, he still enjoys it, he still has a passion for it, and he still wants it to be good.” (575)

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