Pico Iyer:

I remember how, in the corporate world, I always knew there was some higher position I could attain, which meant that, like Zeno's arrow, I was guaranteed never to arrive and always to remain dissatisfied.

Jan Chipchase:

The money you turn down defines you as much as the work you take on.

Nick Romeo, on Frank Bruni:

He's not asking his readers to examine a cultural obsession with success, so much as assuring them that they can still impress others without attending highly selective undergraduate institutions. Just look at all the people who run huge companies or work at prestigious consulting or law firms, he says. Not all of them went to Ivy League schools! There are "myriad routes to a corner office," as he puts it. He never seriously considers the possibility that college might shape students into adults who are not interested in a corner office.

SLOMO:

It was kind of the zenith of my manhood.

I was in the cafeteria line behind an old man who was all bent over and everything. I had asked him how old he was, and he said he was ninety three. He was by himself, and he kept getting one thing after another, putting a lot of food on his tray. I thought I would wise off to him a little bit, so I said, "How does a strapping young man like me get to be an old codger like you?" And he looked at me and said, "Do what you want to!" And at first I was thinking, this old man just made more sense to me than anything I'd ever heard in my life. It's just, do what you want to.

Here's The Thing:

Alec Baldwin: You wanna know, the truth is, I wanna be more like you.

Jerry Seinfeld: Really? How --

AB: Because you are a very, happy -- you know I look at you, and I say to myself, everything is always, like, why aren't you doing what other people do?

JS: Right ...

AB: Meaning, like, the first thing people would say -- in the business -- I mean, even outside the business if they have some savvy about it, was, they'd say, did Jerry want to ramp up a production company and just *print* TV shows? How many sitcoms could you have launched with the imprimatur of your name on it?

JS: Forget it!

AB: You could have your own channel. The Jerry channel.

JS: Yeah, but I didn't take that bait.

AB: Why?

JS: Cuz I know what it is. I know what it is, that's why.

AB: What is it?

JS: You can't pull that over on me! Cuz I've sat in all the chairs, I've been in all the rooms. I know what it is. Look, Alec, you've been there, right?

AB: Yes!

JS: You can't trick me into thinking ...

AB: Thinking what?! Share with the people.

JS: ... that that's good.

AB: That's not good why?

JS: Because most of it is not creative work. And not reaching an audience. You wanna be on the water? How do you wanna be on the water? You wanna be on a yacht or you wanna be on a surfboard? I wanna be on a surfboard. I don't wanna deal with a yacht. That's a yacht. Some people want a yacht to say "See my yacht."

Sterling Hayden:

Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?