"smites" is a great word..

My friend James sent me this quote the other day.. i think that it's just so interesting..

i don't want to be cynical.. i don't want to be disliked.. i really dislike the idea of those two things..

i'd like to always be naive enough to believe in myself...

It’s the naïve people who become the true artists. First, they have to be naïve enough to believe in themselves. Then, a performer—especially an actor or actress—must be naïve enough to keep on trying, using his talent, in spite of any kind of discouragement or double cross. He doesn’t pay attention to setbacks. In his ingenuousness he doesn’t know a setback when it smites him. Money doesn’t concern him. But most importantly, when he reaches the top and becomes famous, he doesn’t change. “That person wouldn’t hurt me,” is your unconscious reaction when one of these actors comes on the screen or walks across the stage. Even when he plays a villain (like Lionel Barrymore) he does it with such enormous, hardworking good will that you see the truth underneath and continue to like him. But the minute the cynical person walks in front of the camera—it picks up. It photographs. You know it. Your feel it. You dislike him.
--Mack Sennett, King of Comedy