My Dinner with Andre Page #14

...carrying out the responsibilities,

doing the errands...

...and crossing them off the list.

And, I mean, I just... I just don't know

how anybody could enjoy anything more...

...than I enjoy, uh, reading

Charlton Heston's autobiography...

...or, uh, you know, uh,

getting up in the morning...

...and having the cup of cold coffee

that's been waiting for me all night...

...still there for me

to drink in the morning...

...and no cockroach or fly

has-has died in it overnight.

I mean, I'm just so thrilled

when I get up...

...and I see that coffee there,

just the way I wanted it.

I mean, I just can't imagine...

...how anybody could enjoy something else

any more than that.

I mean... I mean, obviously, if the cockroach...

if there is a dead cockroach in it...

...well, then I just have a feeling

of disappointment, and I'm sad.

But I mean, I... I just...

I just don't think...

I feel the need for anything more

than all this.

Whereas, you know,

you seem to be saying...

...that, uh...

...it's inconceivable that anybody could

be having a meaningful life today...

...and, you know,

everyone is totally destroyed...

...and we all need to live

in these outposts.

But I mean, you know,

I just can't believe... Even for you...

I mean, don't you find... Isn't it pleasant

just to get up in the morning...

...and there's Chiquita,

there are the children...

...and The Times is delivered,

you can read it.

I mean, maybe you'll direct a play,

maybe you won't direct a play.

But forget about the play

that you may or may not direct.

Why is it necessary to...Why not lean back

and just enjoy these details?

I mean, and there'd be a delicious cup

of coffee and a piece of coffeecake.

I mean, why is it necessary

to have more than this...

...or to even think about

having more than this?

I mean, I don't really know

what you're talking about.

I mean... I mean,

I know what you're talking about...

...but I don't really know

what you're talking about.

And I mean, you know, even if I were

to totally agree with you, you know...

...and even if I were to accept the idea

that there's just no way for anybody...

...to have personal happiness now...

...well, you know,

I still couldn't accept the idea...

...that the way to make life wonderful

would be to just totally...

...you know,

reject Western civilization...

...and fall back into some kind of belief

in some kind of weird something...

I mean, I don't even know how

to begin talking about this...

...but you know, in the Middle Ages...

...before the arrival of

scientific thinking as we know it today...

...well, people could believe anything.

Anything could be true...

the statue of the Virgin Mary...

...could speak or bleed

or whatever it was.

But the wonderful thing

that happened...

...was that then in the development

of science in the Western world...

...certain things did come slowly

to be known and understood.

I mean, you know...

...obviously, all ideas in science

are constantly being revised.

I mean, that's the whole point.

But we do at least know that the universe

has some shape and order...

...and that, uh, you know, trees do not

turn into people or goddesses...

...and there are very good reasons

why they don't...

...and you can't just believe

absolutely anything.

Whereas, the things

that you're talking about...

I mean... I mean, you found

the handprint in the book...

...and there were... There were three Andrs

and one Antoine de Saint-Exupry.

And to me that is a coincidence.

But...And-And then, you know,

the people who put that book together...

...well, they had their own reasons

for putting it together.

But to you it was significant, as if that book

had been written 40 years ago...

...so that you would see it,

as if it was planned for you, in a way.

I mean, really... I mean...

I mean, all right, let's say, if I get

a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant...

I mean, of course,

even I have a tendency...

I mean, you know... I mean, of course,

I would hardly throw it out.

I mean, I read it.

I read it, and... And, uh...

I just instinctively sort of...

You know, if it says something like, uh...

"A conversation with a dark-haired man

will be very important for you"...

...well, I just instinctively think, you know,

"Who do I know who has dark hair?

Did we have a conversation?

What did we talk about?"

In other words, uh, there's something

in me that makes me read it...

...and I instinctively interpret it

as if it were an omen of the future.

But in my conscious opinion, which is

so fundamental to my whole view of life...

I mean, I would just have to change totally

to not have this opinion.

In my conscious opinion,

this is simply something...

...that was written in the cookie factory

several years ago and in no way refers to me.

I mean, you know,

the... The fact that I got it...

I mean, the man who wrote it

did not know anything about me.

I mean, he could not have known

anything about me.

There's no way that this cookie

could actually have to do with me.

And the fact that I've gotten it

is just basically a joke.

And I mean, if I were gonna go

on a trip on an airplane...

...and I got a fortune cookie

that said " Don't go"...

I mean, of course, I admit I might feel

a bit nervous for about one second.

But in fact, I would go because,

I mean...

...that trip is gonna be successful

or unsuccessful...

...based on the state of the airplane

and the state of the pilot.

And the cookie is in no position

to know about that.

And I mean, you know, it's the same...

...with any kind of, uh, prophecy,

or a sign, or an omen.

Because if you believe in omens,

then that means that the universe...

I mean, I don't even know how

to begin to describe this.

That means that the future

is somehow sending messages...

...backwards to the present.

Which-Which means that the future

must exist in some sense already...

...in order to be able

to send these messages.

And it also means that things in the universe

are there for a purpose... To give us messages.

Whereas I think that things

in the universe are just there.

I mean, they don't mean anything.

I mean, you know, if the turtle's egg falls out

of the tree and splashes on the paving stones...

...it's just because that turtle was clumsy...

by accident.

And-And to decide whether to send

my ships off to war on the basis of that...

...seems a big mistake to me.

Well, what information would

you send your ships to war on?

Because if it's all meaningless...

...what's the difference whether

you accept the fortune cookie...

...or the statistics

of the Ford Foundation?

It doesn't seem to matter.

Well, the meaningless fact

of the fortune cookie or the turtle's egg...

...can't possibly have any relevance

to the subject you're analyzing.

Whereas a group of meaningless facts

that are collected and interpreted...

...in a scientific way

may quite possibly be relevant.

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