Isaac Mashman quote: “Movies take years to bring to theater, but hours to watch. Strikingly similar to success.”

“For the adult, all the world is a stage and the personality is the mask one wears to play the assigned role. The outlaw quietly takes a seat in the back row of the theater of the mind and watches.”

Sam Keen (1931) author, professor, and philosopher

Source: The Passionate Life (1983), pp. 135-136

“6. You realize that if 10 million people saw the movie once, each wasting 3 hours of their lives, that 30 million hours have been wasted, and that if each person lived an average of 70 years, 3,424 years, or 49 lives will have been wasted watching the Titanic. James Cameron has effectively murdered 49 people. (Not necessarily a reason to cry, but it is to a sap that saw Titanic in the first place).”

Maddox (1978) American internet writer

Reasons to cry during the movie "Titanic" http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=cry_titanic.
The Best Page in the Universe

“I think of myself as an actor and not a movie star. I like doing movies; I enjoy it. But, essentially, I'm a theater actor. That's the only place I feel like I actually am a star. In the theater, I can put people in the seats and sell tickets.”

Nathan Lane (1956) American actor

Amy Longsdorf (January 25, 2000) "Isnt' He Great? - Hollywood Sure Thinks So, But Nathan Lane Is Still More Comfortable Onstage Than On Celluloid", The Record, p. Y1.

“I think politicians and movie actors and movie executives are similar in more ways than they’re different.”

Jack Valenti (1921–2007) President of the MPAA

Interview on National Public Radio (13 December 1974)
Context: I think politicians and movie actors and movie executives are similar in more ways than they’re different. There is an egocentric quality about both; there is a very sensitive awareness of the public attitude, because you live or die on public favor or disfavor. There is the desire for publicity and for acclaim, because, again, that’s part of your life... And in a strange and bizarre way, when movie actors come to Washington, they’re absolutely fascinated by the politicians. And when the politicians go to Hollywood, they’re absolutely fascinated by the movie stars. It’s a kind of reciprocity of affection by people who both recognize in a sense they’re in the same racket.

“Watch a man at play for an hour and you can learn more about him than in talking to him for a year.”

Plato (-427–-347 BC) Classical Greek philosopher

Attributed to Plato in Confidence : How to Succeed at Being Yourself (1987) by Alan Loy McGinnis, this is probably a paraphrase of a statement which occurs in Letter of Advice to a Young Gentleman Leaving the University Concerning His Behaviour and Conversation in the World (1907) by Richard Lindgard: "Take heed of playing often or deep at Dice and Games of Chance, for that is more chargeable than the seven deadly sins; yet you may allow yourself a certain easie Sum to spend at Play, to gratifie Friends, and pass over the Winter Nights, and that will make you indifferent for the Event. If you would read a man’s Disposition, see him Game; you will then learn more of him in one hour, than in seven Years Conversation, and little Wagers will try him as soon as great Stakes, for then he is off his Guard."
Variants:
You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
Attributed to Plato in Food Is the Frosting-Company Is the Cake (2007) by Maggie Marshall
You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
Attributed to Plato by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as quoted in "Aspiring philosopher Palin quotes 'Plato'" (9 July 2009) http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/palin-plato/
Misattributed

“It takes twenty years to make an overnight success.”

Eddie Cantor (1892–1964) American actor, singer, dancer and comedian

Quoted in James Nicholas, A Book of Wisdom and Delight: How to Fall in Love With Life (2008) p. 162.

“I think if I have any regret at all about my theatrical career, it was that I didn’t stay longer in the theater. It was very hard to do because the transportation problem was quite serious. It took thirty-five hours to fly out. So you couldn’t really commute to the movie business the way you can do in London. But I wanted to be in movies, because I loved movies. I was a big movie fan. And still am and always have been.”

Vincent Price (1911–1993) American actor

Oral history interview with Vincent Price https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-vincent-price-13227 (August 1992)

“I think one of the things we may have missed in horror the last few years is how much fun those movies are to watch. They’re a good time. Horror has either been J Horror, moving upside down, girl with long hair, twisted head kind of thing, towards more let’s torture somebody and do something horrible over a long period of time and you can watch the trainwreck in real time. There are places for both kinds of movies, and there are great examples of both kinds but they’re not necessarily the most good time you can have at a theater.”

Patrick Lussier (1964) Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and film editor

Exclusive Interview: Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine 3D) http://www.chud.com/17737/exclusive-interview-patrick-lussier-my-bloody-valentine-3d/ (January 12, 2009)

“The successes obtained in the government of the arts, are similar to the successes obtained in the government of men.”

Charles Dupin (1784–1873) French mathematician

Source: The Commercial Power of Great Britain, 1925, p. xxxi ; Highlighted section cited in: Joel Mokyr. The Enlightened Economy: Britain and the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1850. 2011. p. 237
Context: The successes obtained in the government of the arts, are similar to the successes obtained in the government of men. We may succeed for a time, by fraud, by surprise, by violence: we can succeed permanently only by means directly opposite. It is not alone the courage, the intelligence, the activity of the manufacturer and the merchant which maintain the superiority of the productions and the commerce of their country; it is far more their wisdom, their economy, above all their probity.

“The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men round to his opinion twenty years later.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson book The Conduct of Life

Culture http://books.google.com/books?id=uVYRAAAAYAAJ&q="The+measure+of+a+master+is+his+success+in+bringing+all+men+round+to+his+opinion+twenty+years+later"&pg=PA157#v=onepage
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)

“Movies take years to bring to theater, but hours to watch. Strikingly similar to success.”

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