TED英語演講：一個娛樂界偶像充滿意義的一生

有在1970年代(和之後的幾十年裏)，Norman 用情景喜劇觸動了數百萬人的生活，比如《全家福》，《傑弗遜一家》等。在和Eric親切的談話中，他謙遜幽默地分享了他早年和「人性愚蠢面」的關係是如何造就了他的人生和創意的願景。下面是小編為大家收集關於TED英語演講：一個娛樂界偶像充滿意義的一生，歡迎借鑑參考。

演説題目：一個娛樂界偶像充滿意義的一生!

演説者：Norman Lear

演講稿

Eric Hirshberg: So I assume that Norman doesn't need much of an introduction, but TED's audience is global, it's diverse, so I've been tasked with starting with his bio, which could easily take up the entire 18 minutes. So instead we're going to do 93 years in 93 seconds or less.

You were born in New Hampshire.

Norman Lear: New Haven, Connecticut.

EH: New Haven, Connecticut.

NL: There goes seven more seconds.

EH: Nailed it.

You were born in New Haven, Connecticut. Your father was a con man -- I got that right. He was taken away to prison when you were nine years old. You flew 52 missions as a fighter pilot in World War II. You came back to --

NL: Radio operator.

EH: You came to LA to break into Hollywood, first in publicity, then in TV. You had no training as a writer, formally, but you hustled your way in. Your breakthrough, your debut, was a little show called "All in the Family." You followed that up with a string of hits that to this day is unmatched in Hollywood: "Sanford and Son," "Maude," "Good Times," "The Jeffersons," "One Day at a Time," "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," to name literally a fraction of them. Not only are they all commercially --

Not only are they all commercially successful, but many of them push our culture forward by giving the underrepresented members of society their first prime-time voice. You have seven shows in the top 10 at one time. At one point, you aggregate an audience of 120 million people per week watching your content. That's more than the audience for Super Bowl 50, which happens once a year.

NL: Holy shit.

EH: And we're not even to the holy shit part.

You land yourself on Richard Nixon's enemies list -- he had one.

That's an applause line, too.

You're inducted into the TV Hall of Fame on the first day that it exists. Then came the movies. "Fried Green Tomatoes," "The Princess Bride," "Stand By Me," "This Is Spinal Tap."

Again, just to name a fraction.

Then you wipe the slate clean, start a third act as a political activist focusing on protecting the First Amendment and the separation of church and state. You start People For The American Way. You buy the Declaration of Independence and give it back to the people. You stay active in both entertainment and politics until the ripe old of age of 93, when you write a book and make a documentary about your life story. And after all that, they finally think you're ready for a TED Talk.

NL: I love being here. And I love you for agreeing to do this.

EH: Thank you for asking. It's my honor. So here's my first question. Was your mother proud of you?

NL: My mother ... what a place to start. Let me put it this way -- when I came back from the war, she showed me the letters that I had written her from overseas, and they were absolute love letters.

This really sums up my mother. They were love letters, as if I had written them to -- they were love letters. A year later I asked my mother if I could have them, because I'd like to keep them all the years of my life ... She had thrown them away.

That's my mother.

The best way I can sum it up in more recent times is -- this is also more recent times -- a number of years ago, when they started the Hall of Fame to which you referred. It was a Sunday morning, when I got a call from the fellow who ran the TV Academy of Arts & Sciences. He was calling me to tell me they had met all day yesterday and he was confidentially telling me they were going to start a hall of fame and these were the inductees. I started to say "Richard Nixon," because Richard Nixon --

EH: I don't think he was on their list.

NL: William Paley, who started CBS, David Sarnoff, who started NBC, Edward R. Murrow, the greatest of the foreign correspondents, Paddy Chayefsky -- I think the best writer that ever came out of television -- Milton Berle, Lucille Ball and me.

EH: Not bad.

NL: I call my mother immediately in Hartford, Connecticut. "Mom, this is what's happened, they're starting a hall of fame."

I tell her the list of names and me, and she says, "Listen, if that's what they want to do, who am I to say?"

That's my Ma. I think it earns that kind of a laugh because everybody has a piece of that mother.

EH: And the sitcom Jewish mother is born, right there.

So your father also played a large role in your life, mostly by his absence.

NL: Yeah.

EH: Tell us what happened when you were nine years old.

NL: He was flying to Oklahoma with three guys that my mother said, "I don't want you to have anything to do with them, I don't trust those men." That's when I heard, maybe not for the first time, "Stifle yourself, Jeanette, I'm going." And he went. It turns out he was picking up some fake bonds, which he was flying across the country to sell. But the fact that he was going to Oklahoma in a plane, and he was going to bring me back a 10-gallon hat, just like Ken Maynard, my favorite cowboy wore. You know, this was a few years after Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic. I mean, it was exotic that my father was going there. But when he came back, they arrested him as he got off the plane.

That night newspapers were all over the house, my father was with his hat in front of his face, manacled to a detective. And my mother was selling the furniture, because we were leaving -- she didn't want to stay in that state of shame, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. And selling the furniture -- the house was loaded with people.

And in the middle of all of that, some strange horse's ass put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Well, you're the man of the house now." I'm crying, and this asshole says, "You're the man of the house now." And I think that was the moment I began to understand the foolishness of the human condition. So ... it took a lot of years to look back at it and feel it was a benefit. But --

EH: It's interesting you call it a benefit.

NL: Benefit in that it gave me that springboard. I mean that I could think how foolish it was to say to this crying nine-year-old boy, "You're the man of the house now." And then I was crying, and then he said, "And men of the house don't cry." And I ...

So ... I look back, and I think that's when I learned the foolishness of the human condition, and it's been that gift that I've used.

EH: So you have a father who's absent, you have a mother for whom apparently nothing is good enough. Do you think that starting out as a kid who maybe never felt heard started you down a journey that ended with you being an adult with a weekly audience of 120 million people?

NL: I love the way you put that question, because I guess I've spent my life wanting -- if anything, wanting to be heard. I think -- It's a simple answer, yes, that was what sparked -- well, there were other things, too. When my father was away, I was fooling with a crystal radio set that we had made together, and I caught a signal that turned out to be Father Coughlin.

Yeah, somebody laughed.

But not funny, this was a horse's -- another horse's ass -- who was very vocal about hating the New Deal and Roosevelt and Jews. The first time I ran into an understanding that there were people in this world that hated me because I was born to Jewish parents. And that had an enormous effect on my life.

EH: So you had a childhood with little in the way of strong male role models, except for your grandfather. Tell us about him.

NL: Oh, my grandfather. Well here's the way I always talked about that grandfather. There were parades, lots of parades when I was a kid. There were parades on Veteran's Day -- there wasn't a President's Day. There was Abraham Lincoln's birthday, George Washington's birthday and Flag Day ... And lots of little parades. My grandfather used to take me and we'd stand on the street corner, he'd hold my hand, and I'd look up and I'd see a tear running down his eye. And he meant a great deal to me.

And he used to write presidents of the United States. Every letter started, "My dearest, darling Mr. President," and he'd tell him something wonderful about what he did. But when he disagreed with the President, he also wrote, "My dearest, darling Mr. President, Didn't I tell you last week ...?"

And I would run down the stairs every now and then and pick up the mail. We were three flights up, 74 York Street, New Haven, Connecticut. And I'd pick up a little white envelope reading, "Shya C. called at this address." And that's the story I have told about my grandfather --

EH: They wrote him back on the envelopes --

NL: They wrote back. But I have shown them myself, going way back to Phil Donahue and others before him, literally dozens of interviews in which I told that story. This will be the second time I have said the whole story was a lie. The truth was my grandfather took me to parades, we had lots of those. The truth is a tear came down his eye.

The truth is he would write an occasional letter, and I did pick up those little envelopes. But "My dearest darling Mr. President," all the rest of it, is a story I borrowed from a good friend whose grandfather was that grandfather who wrote those letters. And, I mean, I stole Arthur Marshall's grandfather and made him my own. Always.

When I started to write my memoir -- "Even this --" How about that? "Even This I Get to Experience." When I started to write the memoir and I started to think about it, and then I -- I -- I did a reasonable amount of crying, and I realized how much I needed the father. So much so that I appropriated Arthur Marshall's grandfather. So much so, the word "father" -- I have six kids by the way. My favorite role in life. It and husband to my wife Lyn. But I stole the man's identity because I needed the father.

Now I've gone through a whole lot of shit and come out on the other side, and I forgive my father -- the best thing I -- the worst thing I -- The word I'd like to use about him and think about him is -- he was a rascal. The fact that he lied and stole and cheated and went to prison ... I submerge that in the word "rascal."

EH: Well there's a saying that amateurs borrow and professionals steal.

NL: I'm a pro.

EH: You're a pro.

And that quote is widely attributed to John Lennon, but it turns out he stole it from T.S. Eliot. So you're in good company.

EH: I want to talk about your work. Obviously the impact of your work has been written about and I'm sure you've heard about it all your life: what it meant to people, what it meant to our culture, you heard the applause when I just named the names of the shows, you raised half the people in the room through your work. But have there ever been any stories about the impact of your work that surprised you?

NL: Oh, god -- surprised me and delighted me from head to toe. There was "An Evening with Norman Lear" within the last year that a group of hip-hop impresarios, performers and the Academy put together. The subtext of "An Evening with ..." was: What do a 92-year-old Jew -- then 92 -- and the world of hip-hop have in common? Russell Simmons was among seven on the stage. And when he talked about the shows, he wasn't talking about the Hollywood, George Jefferson in "The Jeffersons," or the show that was a number five show. He was talking about a simple thing that made a big --

EH: Impact on him?

NL: An impact on him -- I was hesitating over the word, "change." It's hard for me to imagine, you know, changing somebody's life, but that's the way he put it. He saw George Jefferson write a check on "The Jeffersons," and he never knew that a black man could write a check. And he says it just impacted his life so -- it changed his life.

And when I hear things like that -- little things -- because I know that there isn't anybody in this audience that wasn't likely responsible today for some little thing they did for somebody, whether it's as little as a smile or an unexpected "Hello," that's how little this thing was. It could have been the dresser of the set who put the checkbook on the thing, and George had nothing to do while he was speaking, so he wrote it, I don't know. But --

EH: So in addition to the long list I shared in the beginning, I should have also mentioned that you invented hip-hop.

NL: Well ...

EH: I want to talk about --

NL: Well, then do it.

EH: You've lead a life of accomplishment, but you've also built a life of meaning. And all of us strive to do both of those things -- not all of us manage to. But even those of us who do manage to accomplish both of those, very rarely do we figure out how to do them together. You managed to push culture forward through your art while also achieving world-beating commercial success. How did you do both?

NL: Here's where my mind goes when I hear that recitation of all I accomplished. This planet is one of a billion, they tell us, in a universe of which there are billions -- billions of universes, billions of planets ... which we're trying to save and it requires saving. But ... anything I may have accomplished is -- my sister once asked me what she does about something that was going on in Newington, Connecticut. And I said, "Write your alderman or your mayor or something." She said, "Well I'm not Norman Lear, I'm Claire Lear." And that was the first time I said what I'm saying, I said, "Claire. With everything you think about what I may have done and everything you've done," -- she never left Newington -- "can you get your fingers close enough when you consider the size of the planet and so forth, to measure anything I may have done to anything you may have done?"

So ... I am convinced we're all responsible for doing as much as I may have accomplished. And I understand what you're saying --

EH: It's an articulate deflection --

NL: But you have to really buy into the size and scope of the creator's enterprise, here.

EH: But here on this planet you have really mattered.

NL: I'm a son of a gun.

EH: So I have one more question for you. How old do you feel?

NL: I am the peer of whoever I'm talking to.

EH: Well, I feel 93.

NL: We out of here?

EH: Well, I feel 93 years old, but I hope to one day feel as young as the person I'm sitting across from.

Ladies and gentlemen, the incomparable Norman Lear.

艾瑞克·利德爾： 我想大家都很熟悉諾曼了，不需要太多的介紹， 但是TED的觀眾來自全球， 是個多元的羣體， 所以我被要求從介紹他的生平開始， 這輕易就能用完整個18分鐘。 所以我們決定用93秒或更少的時間 來介紹諾曼的這93年。

你生於新罕布什爾州。

諾曼·李爾：是紐黑文，康涅狄格州。

艾瑞克：是紐黑文，康涅狄格州。

諾曼：這就過去7秒了。

艾瑞克：你做到了。

你生於紐黑文，康涅狄格州。 你的父親是個行騙者——這次我對了。 在你九歲的時候他被帶走去了監獄。 在二戰中你是一位飛行員 執行了52次任務。 你回到——

諾曼：是報務員。

艾瑞克：你來到洛杉磯闖入了好萊塢， 首先當宣傳，接着是在電視領域。 你是一位沒有接受過 正式訓練的作家， 但你闖出了你的路。 你的突破，你的首秀， 是一部電視劇《全家福》。 緊接着你拍了一系列 至今都在好萊塢無與倫比的電視劇： 《桑福德和兒子》，《Maude》，《好時光》， 《傑佛遜一家》，《隨遇而安》， 《瑪麗·哈特曼》， 這裏只提到了一部分。 這些電視劇不僅在商業上——

它們不僅都獲得了商業上的成功， 其中很多電視劇也 推動了文化的發展， 讓社會中代表性不足的羣體 首次在黃金時段發聲。 你曾有七部電視劇同時在收視率前十。 你一度吸引了 一億兩千萬的的觀眾 每週觀看你的電視劇。 這甚至超過了每年一度的超級盃 在20xx年的觀眾數。

諾曼：哇靠。

艾瑞克：我們甚至還沒有説到 令人驚歎的哇靠部分。

你使自己成為理查德·尼克松 名單上的敵人—— 他有這麼一份。

這也值得大家的掌聲。

你在名單曝光第一天 就被列入了電視名人堂。 接下來説説電影。 《油炸綠蕃茄》， 《公主新娘》，《伴我同行》， 《搖滾萬歲》。

這裏還是隻提了一部分。

然後你開創了"三幕劇架構" 橫掃了電影界， 從政時致力於保護第一修正案， 堅持政教分離。 你建立了美國之道團體。 你買下了獨立宣言， 然後把它歸還給人民。 你到93歲高齡 都還一直活躍在娛樂界和政界， 然後你開始寫書， 並且製作了一部關於你人生的紀錄片。 經過了所有這些， 他們終於覺得你準備好 做一個TED演講了。

諾曼：很高興來到這裏。 也很高興你同意做這個訪談。

艾瑞克：謝謝你的邀請。我的榮幸。 然後這是我的第一個問題。 你的媽媽為你感到驕傲嗎?

諾曼：我的媽媽…… 從這裏開始啊。 讓我這樣説吧—— 當我從戰場上回來， 她給我看了我從海外寄給她的信， 這些絕對都是情書。

這確實概括形容了我媽媽。 那些情書， 彷彿我把它們寫成那樣一般—— 它們就是情書。 一年後我問媽媽， 我是否能擁有它們， 因為我想保存它們一生…… 她已經扔掉了。

這就是我媽媽。

近期，我能總結的最好方式—— 這也是最近的事—— 幾年前， 當他們開始籌備 你剛剛提到的名人堂的時候。 那是一個週日的早晨， 我接到了一個管理電視藝術 及科學學院朋友的電話。 他打電話告訴我説， 他們昨天談了一整天， 他跟我説，告訴你一個祕密， 我們將要成立一個名人堂， 然後他告訴我入選者都有誰。 我開頭就説“理查德·尼克松”， 因為理查德·尼克松——

艾瑞克：我不認為他在名單上。

諾曼：CBS之父威廉·佩利， 創立NBC的大衞·沙諾夫， 愛德華·默羅， 最偉大的駐外記者， 帕迪·查耶夫斯基—— 我認為是電視界最好的編劇—— 米爾頓·伯利，露西·鮑爾， 還有我。

艾瑞克：不錯。

諾曼：我立刻打電話給 在哈特福德，康涅狄格州的媽媽。 “媽媽，你知道嗎， 他們要成立一個名人堂。“

我告訴她那些入選者的名字，還有我， 然後她説， ”聽着，如果他們要這麼做， 我還能説什麼?“

這就是我媽媽。 我覺得能這麼好笑的原因是， 因為每個人的媽媽都有這樣的一面。

艾瑞克：情景喜劇中的 猶太人媽媽就這樣誕生了。

你的父親在你的人生中 也扮演了重要的角色， 大部分是因為他的缺席。

諾曼：是。

艾瑞克：告訴我們你九歲的時候發生了什麼。

諾曼：他當時要與三個人 一同飛去俄克拉何馬州， 我媽媽説， ”我不想你和那三個人有任何關係， 我不相信他們。” 那時候我聽到他説， “別説了，珍妮特。我要去。” 這大概不是我第一次聽到了。 然後他去了。 結果他拿到了一些假債券， 飛到全國各地做銷售。 但是他坐飛機去俄克拉何馬州， 他要給我帶回一個“十加侖“大檐帽， 就像我最喜歡的牛仔 肯· 梅德納戴的那樣—— 你知道這是在很多年前 林德伯格穿越大西洋之後。 我的意思是我爸爸 那時候去那兒很奇怪。 但是當他回來的時候， 他一下飛機就被逮捕了。

那一晚，屋裏到處都是報紙， 我爸爸戴的帽子遮着他的臉， 他被刑警銬上手銬。 我媽媽開始賣傢俱， 因為我們要離開—— 她不想待在切爾西，馬薩諸塞州 生活在恥辱中。 她在賣傢俱的時候—— 屋裏全都是人。

在這些人當中， 有一個奇怪的蠢貨 把手放到我的肩膀上，説： ”嗯，現在你是家中的男人了。“ 我正在哭，而這個混蛋説， ”現在你是這個家裏的男人了。“ 我想我就是從那時起 開始理解到人性的愚蠢。 然後…… 我花了很多年重新審視它 並感覺到它的益處。 但是——

艾瑞克：你把它看作是有益的這很有趣。

諾曼：益處在於它給了我一個出發點。 我的意思是我可以認為 對一個在哭泣的九歲男孩説 ”現在你是這個家裏的男人了。“ 這樣的行為很愚蠢。 然後我還在哭，然後他説： ”一家之主是不能流淚的。“ 然後我……

所以…… 我回顧，然後我想 那個時候，我瞭解到了人性的愚蠢， 之後我一直受益於這個禮物。

艾瑞克：所以你有一個缺席的父親， 你有一個認為什麼都不夠好的母親。 你覺不覺得，從一個感到 從未被傾聽的孩子開始， 一路走來， 這段旅程使你最後成為一個 一週擁有一億兩千萬收視觀眾的人?

諾曼：我喜歡你問這個問題的方式， 因為我猜，我已經花了一生的時間想—— 是否有什麼是需要被傾聽的。 我想—— 這是個簡單的答案，是， 就是這個激勵了我—— 嗯，也有別的。 我爸爸不在的時候， 我擺弄着一個我們之前 一起做的礦石收音機， 我捕捉到一個信號結果是神父柯林。

嗯，一些人笑了。

但是這並不好笑， 這是一個蠢—— 另一個蠢貨—— 他激烈地表達對新政， 對羅斯福，和對猶太人的厭惡。 那是我第一次意識到 這個世界上有人討厭我 就因為我父母是猶太人。 這對我的人生產生了巨大的影響。

艾瑞克：你的童年 缺少強大的男性榜樣， 除了你的爺爺。 跟我們説説他。

諾曼：哦，我的爺爺。 嗯，我總是這樣談論我的爺爺。 我還是個孩子的時候 有遊行，很多遊行。 老兵節有遊行—— 不過總統日沒有。 亞伯拉罕·林肯的生日有， 喬治·華盛頓的生日有， 還有國旗日…… 也有很多小遊行。 我爺爺以前會帶我去， 我們會站在街角， 他拉着我的手， 我抬頭會看到他流眼淚。 他對我來説意味着很多。

他以前會給美國總統寫信。 每封信都這樣開始， ”我最最親愛的總統先生，“ 然後告訴他一些他做的了不起的事。 但是當他不同意 總統的決定時，他也寫信。 ”我最最親愛的總統先生， 上星期我是不是跟你説過……?”

我經常往樓下跑， 去拿信件。 我們當時住在 康涅狄格州紐黑文約克街的74號， 要上三段樓梯。 我會拿到一個小信封，上面寫着 “住在這裏的Shya C.”。 這就是我講述過的 關於我爺爺的故事。

艾瑞克：他們在信封上回信——

諾曼：他們回信了。 但我已經向他們坦白， 從多年前的菲爾多納休 還有在他之前的其他人， 幾乎每次的訪談中， 我都有提到那個故事， 這將是我第二次説 這個故事是個謊言。 真相是我爺爺帶我去遊行， 我們去過很多次。 真相是他流淚了。

真相是他偶爾會寫一封信， 而我的確拿到了那些小信封。 但是“我最最親愛的總統先生”， 和剩下的所有 都是一個我從好朋友那兒借鑑的故事， 他的爺爺才是那個寫了那些信的爺爺。 我是説，我偷了 阿瑟·馬歇爾的爺爺， 把他變成了我自己的。 一直都是這樣。

當我開始寫我的回憶錄時—— 《甚至這些——》 你怎麼看這件事? <<甚至這些我都曾經歷過>> 當我開始寫回憶錄時， 我開始思考， 然後我—— 我—— 我真情流露地哭了， 然後我意識到我是多麼地需要“父親”。 這麼需要以至於我借用了 阿瑟·馬歇爾的爺爺。 這麼需要“爸爸”—— 順便一提，我有六個孩子， “爸爸”是我生活中 最喜歡的角色， 還有身為我妻子，林， 的丈夫這個角色。 但是我偷用了那個人的身份 因為我需要一個“爸爸“。

我經歷了那麼多悲慘的事， 結果我站到了另一邊， 我原諒了我的爸爸—— 最好的事情—— 最壞的事情—— 我想起他，形容他 想要用的詞是—— 他是一個混蛋。 他説謊，偷竊，欺騙， 然後進了監獄…… 我讓這些都沉浸在 “混蛋”這個詞中。

艾瑞克：人們常説，"外行借，內行偷"。

諾曼：我是職業的。

艾瑞克：沒錯，你是職業的。

人們普遍認為這句話出自約翰·列儂， 但其實他是從艾略特那偷來的。 所以你有好同伴了。

艾瑞克：我想談談你的成就。 顯然你的成就所帶來的影響 已經被評論過， 我相信你已經聽過很多： 它對人們意味着什麼， 它對我們的文化意味着什麼， 當我剛才列舉那些電視劇電影的時候 你聽到了掌聲， 你使這裏半數的人起身致敬你的成就。 有沒有過什麼關於你成就影響的故事 使你感到驚訝呢?

諾曼：哦，上帝—— 使我整個人都感到驚訝和欣喜。 去年有一個<<和諾曼·李爾的夜晚>> 的談話節目， 把一羣嘻哈經理人， 舞者和電視學會聚在一起。 “和……的夜晚”的潛台詞是： 一個92歲的猶太人—— 已經92歲了—— 和嘻哈界有什麼共同點? 拉塞爾·西蒙斯是台上的七人之一。 當他談到那些電視劇時， 他不是在談論好萊塢 《傑佛遜一家》中的喬治·傑佛遜 或是這個當時排名第五的電視劇。 他在談論的是，一件簡單的事情 產生了巨大的——

艾瑞克：對他產生了巨大的影響?

諾曼：對他的影響—— 我在猶豫用“改變”這個詞。 我很難想象， 你知道，改變某人的人生， 但是他是這麼説的。 他看到喬治·傑佛遜 在《傑佛遜一家》中開了一張支票， 而他從不知道一個黑人可以寫支票。 他説，這影響了他的人生—— 這改變了他的人生。

而當我聽到這樣的事情時—— 這些微不足道的小事—— 因為我知道這裏的觀眾沒有人 會在意他們為別人做過的小事。 不管它小到是一個微笑 還是一個意想不到的“你好”， 那件事就是這麼小。 有可能是梳粧者 把支票簿放在了那上面， 而喬治在説話的時候 無事可做便寫了支票， 我不知道， 但是——

艾瑞克：所以除了我在一開始 提到的那些成就， 我也應該提及説是你創造了嘻哈。

諾曼：額……

艾瑞克：我想談談——

諾曼：嗯，那就加上吧。

艾瑞克：你走過了充滿成就的一生， 但同時你也造就了充滿意義的一生。 我們所有人都在努力達成這兩件事—— 不是所有人都能成功。 但即使是那些 成功達成這兩件事的人， 也極少能弄明白 如何同時達成它們。 你成功用藝術推動了文化的前行， 同時也取得了了驚人的商業成就。 你是如何同時做到的?

諾曼：這是我在聽到 我所有的成就時想到的。 這裏是無數行星中的一顆， 他們告訴我們， 在這個宇宙中有幾十億—— 幾十億個宇宙， 幾十億顆行星…… 我們在試圖保護， 它也需要我們的保護。 但是…… 我的任何成就—— 我姐姐曾問我，對於 在紐因頓，康涅狄格州發生的事情， 她做了些什麼。 我説：“寫信給市議員或者 市長或者別的什麼。” 她説：“額，我不是諾曼·李爾， 我是克萊爾·李爾。” 然後那是我第一次説到 我現正在談的這些東西， 我説：“克萊爾，你認為我做過的所有事 和你做過的所有事，”—— 她從未離開過紐因頓—— “當你考慮到地球宇宙等等這些大小的時候， 你即使把手指努力併攏，那縫隙也不足以 衡量我做過的或者是你做過的事嗎。“

所以…… 我相信我們都能 做到我也許達成了的。 我理解你説的是什麼——

艾瑞克：這是一個很明顯的謊言——

諾曼：但是你必須考慮到造物主造就的 空間和大小，在這裏。

艾瑞克：但是在這裏在地球上， 你真的很重要。

諾曼：我是個混蛋。

艾瑞克：我還有一個問題。 你覺得自己幾歲了?

諾曼：我是任何和我交談者的同齡人。

艾瑞克：嗯，我覺得我93歲了。

諾曼：結束了?

艾瑞克：嗯，我覺得我93歲了， 但是我希望有一天，我也能感覺 和坐在我對面的這個人一樣年輕。

女士們先生們， 致敬偉大的諾曼·李爾。

諾曼：謝謝。