We just may be the most well-informed, yet least self-aware, people in history. Norman Lear More Quotes by Norman Lear More Quotes From Norman Lear When something is over, it is over. Norman Lear over-it Success is how you collect your minutes. You spend millions of minutes to reach one triumph, one moment, then you spend maybe a thousand minutes enjoying it. If you were unhappy through those millions of minutes, what good is the thousand minutes of triumph? It doesn't equate... Life is made of small pleasures. Good eye contact over the breakfast table with your wife. A moment of touching a friend. Happiness is made of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. If you don't have all those zillions of tiny successes, the big ones don't mean anything. Norman Lear happy happiness life I wish I knew how we achieve the goal of world peace. My bumper sticker reads 'Just Another Version of You.' The sooner we agree that we're just other versions of each other - we human beings - the sooner we will find some sense of world peace. Norman Lear goal wish world Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don't collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don't really mean anything. Norman Lear gratitude happiness life Life is about having a good time. Norman Lear having-a-good-time good-times life-is You know, you throw rocks in the lake and scientists will tell you you're raising the level of the lake, but all you get to see is the ripple. Norman Lear rocks levels lakes I like getting up in the morning, and I like better having something to do when I get up in the morning. Norman Lear get-up morning I think America, unfortunately, collectively thinks of itself as the 'chosen people.' To my knowledge, there are no chosen people, we are all human beings. Norman Lear america people thinking It seems to me that any full grown, mature adult would have a desire to be responsible, to help where he can in a world that needs so very much, that threatens us so very much. Norman Lear making-a-difference change desire That's the heart of it: My shows were not that controversial with the American people. They were controversial with the people who think for the American people. Norman Lear heart people thinking Maybe they continued to agree with Archie Bunker - as I said earlier, you can't change people's minds, but you can get them to think. Norman Lear agreement people thinking I guess because the shows were activist in their own way - the marriage of my public activism and my career activism, you know - people understand me very well. They also understand there's a very strong bipartisan part in all of this. Norman Lear careers strong people But you know, my dad called me the laziest white kid he ever met. When I screamed back at him that he was putting down a race of people to call me lazy, his answer was that's not what he was doing, and that I was also the dumbest white kid he ever met. Norman Lear dad race kids Success is how you collect your minutes. Norman Lear minutes success If there is a reason to believe in God, it would be the Havana Leaf. Norman Lear would-be reason believe We did an episode on Good Times which came out of a newspaper article about the incidence of hypertension in black males being higher than whites, and increasing. So we did a show in which James, the father on Good Times, had hypertension. Norman Lear males black father So we gravitated to shows and issues and causes that made people care. Norman Lear issues care people That's a very hard thing to help the establishment know. We're still an establishment that thinks the average mentality is something like 13 years of age, that never forgot H.L. Mencken's notion that nobody lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American people. That's the horseshit the establishment has always lived with. Norman Lear average years thinking My dad called me meat head dead from the neck up. Norman Lear necks dad meat I think for television generally, the question that often arises is, "Does television lead, or does it follow?" You know, does it lead the conversation, or culture, or does it follow what's going on? And I think it does both. Norman Lear doe culture thinking
