PLAYBOY: If life is so purposeless, do you feel that it\u2019s worth living?<\/p>\n
STANLEY KUBRIK: Yes, for those of us who manage somehow to cope with our own mortality. The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre, their idealism\u2014and their assumption of immortality. As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But if \u00a0 he\u2019s reasonably strong\u2014and lucky\u2014he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life\u2019s \u00e9lan. Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death\u2014however mutable man may be able to make them\u2014our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STANLEY KUBRIK PLAYBOY: If life is so purposeless, do you …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12749],"tags":[1165,86,1163,3,1164],"class_list":["post-1189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tumblr","tag-alife","tag-film","tag-playboy","tag-quote-of-the-day","tag-stanley-kubrik"],"yoast_head":"\n