Herzog

"I have asked myself why am I different from, let's say, most of the Americans who have goals in life and who strive for happiness. The 'right ' to happiness is even in their Declaration of Independence. I keep on asking myself why I do not care so much about happiness. I simply do not have goals in life. Rather, I have goals in existence. I would make a very clear distinction between the two, and I hope that makes sense to you.

"We would rave and rant about questions which have bothered me for a long time, such as immovable positions within the universe. It is easy to relate this to three-dimensional spaces: if you hang yourself by the neck in your attic, and somebody finds your body dangling, what would this person need to do to fix you in a completely immobile position? Answer: one more rope from your ankles down to the floor to prevent you from swinging and one more from your belt to a wall in order to prevent you from spinning around your axis. But how many ropes would be necessary to fix yourself in a totally immovable position within the universe?

"During the Second World War, Joseph Goebbels gave a rather laconic order to all cameramen at the front: 'The German soldier always attacks from left to right.' That was it, no further explanation. Sure enough, if you take a look at old newsreels, you will discover that the Germans always advance from the left to the right of the screen. There was some logic to this when Germany attacked Russia, as Russia lies east of
Germany, but what about the war against France? But again, in the newsreels of the invasion westwards into Europe, the German forces are seen to attack from left to right. Goebbels' trick is still used today. You just have to look at television commercials, a couple of which I screened during my talk. I think that the question we need to ask ourselves is this: why does the direction of their movement make the soldiers look so victorious, so optimistic? Some people have argued that we read and write from left to right, which could be the reason why such a movement will be perceived as harmonic . But how does it work in the Arab world, where people write from right to left? There must be something within us, some hidden law. What it is, I cannot say. I just know that it exists."

(Werner Herzog, whose ruthless intelligence and sheer conviction to the mysterious will that shapes 'our universe', remains matchless.)