The Movie: All That Jazz, 1979 (Robert Alan Aurthur and Bob Fosse, screenwriters; Bob Fosse, dir.)
Who says it: Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon, a choreographer/director whose life hangs in the balance
The context: Gideon says this to the mirror every morning as he’s about to face the world, usually with a bad hangover.
How to use it: To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet, as T.S. Eliot puts it.
I had a 7:00 conference call this morning, scheduled back when I thought I'd be on East Coast time by now. In five years, I never really made the commitment to Pacific time; if I wait until 9:00 to start my work day, the people on the East Coast have already been working for three hours, and that makes me too anxious.
It helps (or doesn't) that Dizzy gets up at dawn, whenever dawn happens to be. But what ruined sleeping in for me forever was September 11, 2001. Dizzy and I got up a little before 6:00 a.m., as usual, and by the time we'd gotten back from the morning walk, I already had voice mails and the world had changed forever. For months afterwards I was afraid to go to bed at night, for fear of what might have happened by the time I woke up.
Since then, I've only been able to sleep late in my parents' house. Old habits die hard.
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