not pick up the first doubt. We simply cannot allow the first
negative thinking to take hold. Taking in the first doubt is
like picking up the first drink for an alcoholic. Once in our
system, the doubt will take on another doubt—and another.
Doubting thoughts can be stopped, but it takes vigilance to
do it. “Maybe that critic was right....” And, boom, we must
go into action: “You are a good artist, a brave artist, you are
doing well. It’s good that you did the work....”
When God’s Will, the romantic film comedy I directed,
debuted in Washington, D.C., it was a homecoming for me.
My earliest journalism work had been for the Washington
Post. I was hoping for a hometown-girl-makes-good
reception. But in the reviews printed prior to the opening, I
did not get it.
What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.
ALBERT CAMUSThe Post sent a young woman who watched an entire
movie about theater people and then wrote that it was about
movie people. She added that “Most” of my dialogue had
been stolen from “Casablanca.” I wondered what movie she
had seen; not the one I made. My movie had forty odd
theater jokes and a one line joke about “Casablanca.” Those
were the facts but they didn’t do me any good.
I was mortified. Shamed. Ready to (almost) die.