Jennifer Jeffrey, Writer & Editor: I've Learned that Stealing isn't Always Bad

I did a very naughty thing last week: I was so captivated by the magazine I was reading at the hair salon that I slipped it into my bag and took it home with me. I don’t make a habit of pinching magazines, but this copy was 3 months old, and tattered around the corners. A few of the pages were stuck together with crusty brown dye.

I feel guilty, but not much.

The magazine is Esquire, one of those men’s glossies that appeals to urban gents who want to know ~~which movies to see, which books to read~~, what pick-up lines to use, and which actresses are hot this week, and where to go on their next vacation.

Not exactly my sort of rag, but then this particular edition had Johnny Depp on the cover, and how much do I love Johnny? Let me count the ways.

I flipped it open, and found myself in the middle of their 10-year anniversary edition, in which they published excerpts from interviews with artists over the last decade who answered the question: “What do you know?”

The section was titled "What I've Learned" and I found many of the answers compelling. Here are just a few select quotes - I thought you might find them intriguing as well.

Johnny Depp:

I don’t want to be a product. I don’t want to know who’s hot now and who’s not and who’s making this much dough and who’s boffing this woman or that one. I want to remain ignorant of all of this. I want to be totally outside and far away from all of it.

Tim Burton:

I sometimes meet people who say, I’m going to be this and I’m going to be that. You feel kind of bad for them, because they’re limiting themselves. It’s different than having an enthusiasm for something and seeing where life takes you. I feel lucky to never have planned to go into what I did. I always just said: “All I want to do is make things, whether it’s drawing or writing.” If I’d said, “I’m going to be a director,” it probably wouldn’t have happened.

Michael J. Fox:

My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations. Acceptance is the key to everything.

Christopher Reeve (from a 2004 interview):

We all have many more abilities and internal resources than we know. My advice is that you don’t need to break your neck to find out about them.

Steve Wynn:

Keep it simple. Tell the truth. People can smell the truth.

Julia Child (from a 2000 interview):

Always remember: if you’re alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who’s going to know?

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Aren’t those fabulous? The issue is packed with more gems like those, but you’ll just have to ~~steal~~ buy your own copy if you want to read them all.