Midnight in Paris

That's what the present is. It's a little unsatisfying because life is unsatisfying.

Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.

You can fool me, but you cannot fool Ernest Hemingway!

Gil: I would like you to read my novel and get your opinion.
Ernest Hemingway: I hate it.
Gil: You haven't even read it yet.
Ernest Hemingway: If it's bad, I'll hate it. If it's good, then I'll be envious and hate it even more. You don't want the opinion of another writer.

No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.

The artist's job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.