Matthew Weiner Quotes

The mob is a monster, with the hands of Briareus, but the head of Polyphemus,--strong to execute, but blind to perceive.

When you are part of a cartel, you don't have a Costco card that says, 'I'm a card-carrying member of the cartel.'

People who think achieving success is a linear A-to-Z process, a straight shot to the top, simply aren't in touch with reality.

To restore a sense of reality, I think Walt Disney should have a Hardluckland.

The Chicago mobs... They practiced their own perverted form of "survival of the fittest." Where the strong clawed their way to the top of a criminal empire. And the weak died in a hail of machine gun bullets.

The reason I like incorporating the Yakuza into my movies - all their actions, everything they do, you can say 'It's ok because he's a Yakuza'. Changes happen very quickly in their world. If you were trying to make a movie about politicians, it would takes years and years for something to change; whereas for Yakuzas, it could only take one night and things can change dramatically.

I had a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions. l might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three city districts. The Marines operated on three continents.

What do you mean "gangsters"? It's business.

Do you think I would enter into a contract with that mob? Absolutely no chance. I would not sell them a virus. That is a 'No' by the way. There is no agreement whatsoever between the clubs.

When you're drug kingpin - you're a mayor. You are a governor. But of a different society. You get to do what you want to do, just like any mayor. You can park your car anywhere. You get the best women. You go to the restaurants and eat free. It was like being a rock star. Like being Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan. It was just pure freedom, everything I was looking for. I desperately wanted freedom.

I think we're fascinated by gangsters and that whole lifestyle and crossing the line. We get sort of stuck in our normal lives, if you will, and you want to be bigger than life and I think people somehow live through these sorts of characters.

I think that one should recognize reality even when one doesn't like it; indeed, especially when one doesn't like it.

My brother, who's my acting coach, he can be like, "That sucked, Chloe. You need to pick that up. You're not thinking right now. Seriously, think." It's a good harsh reality, because my family keeps me very grounded.

I was pretty far gone, but not so far gone that I thought anyone with half a toehold in reality would think what we were doing was a good idea.

To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States.

Some of my friends became gangsters. You became a gangster depending upon how fast you wanted a suit. Gangsters weren't the stereotypes you see in the movies. I knew the real ones, and the real ones were out for big money.

In fact rules are more important in our underworld than they are to the regular citizen who works within them.

The mob will now and then see things in a right light.

What man needs is not just the persistent posing of ultimate questions, but the sense of what is feasible, what is possible, what is correct, here and now. The philosopher, of all people, must, I think, be aware of the tension between what he claims to achieve and the reality in which he finds himself.

one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul

Many photographers live in a dream world of beautiful backgrounds. It wouldn’t hurt them to get a taste of reality to wake them up.

I think the name came [of the show 'Gaycation'] out of the fact that a lot of people just don't know - they don't know what so many people face around the world or even in their own country, where there's a variety of experience, and despite the incredible progress we've seen, that progress hasn't necessarily reached everyone. I wanted to kind of have this title to have you be open to the experience, and then you enter it and you do see the realities.

Considering a work program at this time is quite simply out of touch with the reality we confront.

Chirag: Rowley, do you think I exist? Rowley: Nope! I can't even hear you or see you!

I don't think it's any fun, even if you are one of the most respected authors in the world like Margaret Atwood, to keep being nominated and not win.