My Relationship With Science Is As Someone

For A While In My Teens, I Was Sure I Had It. It Was About Getting To Heaven. If Heaven Existed And Lasted Forever, Then A Mere Lifetime Spent Scrupulously Following Orders Was A Small Investment For An Infinite Payoff. One Day, Though, I Realized I Was No Longer A Believer, And Realizing That, I Couldn't Go Back.

I'm Greedy For That Satisfaction Of Doing Something Hard And Knowing That, Even Though I Was Afraid I Couldn't Do It, That Somehow I Can Deliver.

It Makes It Fun. When An Actor Plays A Character, You Want What That Character Wants. Otherwise It Doesn't Look Authentic. So I Really Want To Defeat Jimmy - I Mean Jimmy As The Character.

During The First Day, Curious At Having Outsiders Among Them, A Long Stream Of Inmates Came Over And Talked With Me. Remarkably, According To What They Told Me, Nearly Every Inmate In The Prison Didn't Do It. Several Thousand People Had Been Locked Up Unjustly And, By An Incredible Coincidence, All In The Same Prison. On The Other Hand, They Knew An Awful Lot About How To Knife Somebody.

The Difference Between Listening And Pretending To Listen, I Discovered, Is Enormous. One Is Fluid, The Other Is Rigid. One Is Alive, The Other Is Stuffed. Eventually, I Found A Radical Way Of Thinking About Listening. Real Listening Is A Willingness To Let The Other Person Change You. When I’m Willing To Let Them Change Me, Something Happens Between Us That’s More Interesting Than A Pair Of Dueling Monologues.