chris rock in rolling stone

May 18th, 2005

Reading the latest Rolling Stone (I got suckered into a subscription, do not ask) reveals some gems from Chris Rock on page 38:

“People have no idea of the difference in health care in this country. I mean, my father got sick when I was poor. My mother got sick when I was rich. My father’s dead. My mother’s alive.”

Seriously, coming from Europe, I am amazed at what they call health care here in the United States, land of freedom, democracy, unlimited possibilities but apparently not .. healthcare. Just a simple ‘fact’ that astounds me: people (I personally know) do not go to the doctor here when they get sick because it is too expensive.

He also has some enlightening, almost taoist, ideas about how to approach his career. Asked if there is a plan to his movie career, which has been all over the map, he answers:

“The plan is to not suck. Sometimes I stick to the plan, sometimes not.”

It took me a year here in grad school to figure that out.

Posted in media, quotes, thinking

2 Responses

  1. ma

    good that 1 year is enough for you to figure that out. I hope it wouldn’t take me a life time.

    Why people ask about your plans anyway?
    Sometimes I wonder do they really care? Or they just couldn’t think of better to ask?
    (though apparently i asked my new friend that question)
    Urgh
    *frowned*

  2. James

    But how do you balance not sucking with taking risks? That’s a tricky bit.

    We can “plan” by finding and sticking to things we know we’re not too shabby at. But at times, that means playing it too safe.

    As Scott “Understanding Comics” McCloud put it, it’s not an experiment if you know the results in advance.

book and sword : gratitude and revenge

is the first novel written by Jin Yong. The protagonist is Chan Ka Lok, who is the leader of the Red Flower Society. The book title refers to Ka Lok being famous for being well-versed in culture and martial arts, but also for having to make a difficult ethical decision. My father named me and my brother after him.

The subtitle is from a poem Desiderata