Gann Quotes

I don't get that many scripts. Back in Australia, I've pretty much done my own shows and really no work outside of that. It's only now that I'm starting to read some Hollywood film scripts, and I've read some really great ones. ~ Jason Gann

Electronics were rascals, and they lay awake nights trying to find some way to screw you during the day. You could not reason with them. They had a brain and intestines, but no heart. ~ Ernest K. Gann

There are no real guidelines or maps in Australia as to how to write a show, whereas in Hollywood it's where the TV industry is created and there's a lot of work that goes into development. ~ Jason Gann

They were like fire and water, two opposing forces forever lost in an epic rivalry. Quite frankly, it would have been easier attempting to break a deal with wild horses than these two boys. ~ Louise Gann

It's great to write for actors when you know who they are. I think I prefer it. ~ Jason Gann

A successful trader studies human nature and does the opposite of what the general public does. ~ William Delbert Gann

...I stand looking at the aircraft, trying in vain to remember all the theoretical lore which i was supposed to have absorbed in school. The effort is discouraging. ~ Ernest K. Gann

Time is the most important factor in determining market movements and by studying past price records you will be able to prove to yourself history does repeat and by knowing the past you can tell the future. There is a definite relation between price and time. By studying time cycles and time periods you will learn why market tops and bottoms are found at certain times, and why resistance levels are so strong at certain times, and prices hold around them. The most money is made when fast moves and extreme fluctuations occur at the end of major cycles. ~ William Delbert Gann

I see something that seems like standard fare, that I can imagine any number of actors playing, and I'm generally not interested. ~ Jason Gann

And he supposed it might not be the best of days. But then, he was flying the mails and was not expected to squat on the ground like a frightened canary every time there was a cloud in the sky. If a pilot showed an obvious preference for flying only in the best conditions he soon found himself looking for work. This was the way of his life and he had always ascended when others had found excuse to keep their feet on the ground. ~ Ernest K. Gann

Did you know, the worst kind of demon is that which is disguised as a human". ~ Louise Gann

The acting is more of a secondary thing for me now. I will be in it, if I'm the best man for the job, but it really is about creating characters and shows. ~ Jason Gann

My dad was in the army so we moved around a lot and I changed schools every year and had to make new friends, and I found that if I was the funny guy I could do that easier. ~ Jason Gann

During this period Steen and Fox were killed trying a single-engine instrument approach at Moline. Then Campbell and Leatherman hit a ridge near Elko, Nevada. In both incidents the official verdict was 'pilot error,' but since their passengers, who were innocent of the controls, also failed to survive, it seemed that fate was the hunter. As it had been and would be. ~ Ernest K. Gann

It's when things are going just right that you'd better be suspicious. There you are, fat as can be. The whole world is yours and you're the answer to the Wright brothers' prayers. You say to yourself, nothing can go wrong ... all my trespasses are forgiven. Best you not believe it. ~ Ernest K. Gann

Flying is hypnotic and all pilots are victims to the spell. Their world is like a magic island in which the factors of life and death assume their proper values. Thinking becomes clear because there are no earthly foibles or embellishments to confuse it. ~ Ernest K. Gann

Rule books are paper - they will not cushion a sudden meeting of stone and metal. ~ Ernest K. Gann

As the years go by, he returns to this invisible world rather than to earth for peace and solace. There also he finds a profound enchantment, although he can seldom describe it. He can discuss it with others of his kind, and because they too know and feel its power they understand. But his attempts to communicate his feelings to his wife or other earthly confidants invariable end in failure. ~ Ernest K. Gann

The men in this book are fictitious characters but their counterparts can be found in cockpits all over the world. Now they are flying a war. Tomorrow they will be flying a peace, for, regardless of the world's condition, flying is their life. ~ Ernest K. Gann

I am drawn to the new chart with all of its colorful intricacies as a gourmet must anticipate the details of a feast ... I shall keep them forever. As stunning exciting proof that a proper mixture of science and art is not only possible but a blessed union. ~ Ernest K. Gann

So many young pets burn out in Hollywood, it's crazy. ~ Jason Gann

There are two kinds of airplanes - those you fly and those that fly you ... You must have a distinct understanding at the very start as to who is the boss. ~ Ernest K. Gann

Back in Australia, I did foster care for sick cats for years, and I was always most successful with the animals when I was given two - a brother and sister. ~ Jason Gann

Nobody who gets too damned relaxed builds up much flying time. ~ Ernest K. Gann

You can maybe be artistic and really original and creative, but as long as it's got that funniness at the root of it, then certain people are going to love it just because they need a laugh. ~ Jason Gann

Those ever more frequent nights when his loneliness became unbearable and he took solace in wine he would sometimes stand outside his tent holding his cup toward the great mass as if it lived and was then only slumbering beneath the stars. Drunk and bemused at its enormous dimensions he would mumble words at it, reaching out as if he could touch it. "Hail, you sleeping elephant - what would happen if you farted? Roll over, mighty carbuncle on the face of the earth, and dump the Jews in the sea of salt. I will live to crown you, Masada, with a wreath of my urine. ~ Ernest K. Gann

If such a thing as love exists, then surely freedom exist to ~ Louise Gann

I always found it really funny when actors would come offstage, smoking cigarettes and swearing at each other. ~ Jason Gann

Sometimes girls would come in and audition and they'd talk down, and it was like, "No, no, talk to the human eye level." ~ Jason Gann

You are supposed to know how to fly or you would not be here. You will now learn to fly all over again. Our way. I have examined your logbooks. They contain some interesting and clever lies. If you are lucky and work a good solid eighteen hours a day in this school, it is barely possible that a few of you may succeed in actually going out on the line-that is, if the company is still in such desperate need of pilots that it will hire anybody who wears his wings in his lapel and walks slowly past the front door. ~ Ernest K. Gann

There's darkness everywhere. You just can't see it because the sun is such an attention-whore. ~ Jason Gann

I came to America so that I could work with the best and be the best. ~ Jason Gann

Fear breeds upon itself because it is a hermaphrodite capable of endless reproduction. Fear is a contagious disease, spreading from its first victim to others in the vicinity until it is powerful enough to take charge of a group, in which event it becomes panic. Fear is the afterbirth of reason and calculation. It takes time to recuperate from fear. ~ Ernest K. Gann

It is the professional pilot's bounden duty to know the idiosyncrasies of each type (of airplane), for he must spend a large proportion of his active career exploiting its qualities and compensating for its faults. These secrets cannot be discovered in a ground school. ~ Ernest K. Gann

I often don't like seeing how different things are made. I'm not a big fan of behind the scenes stuff. ~ Jason Gann

Every movement in the market is the result of a natural law and of a Cause which exists long before the Effect takes place and can be determined years in advance. The future is but a repetition of the past, as the Bible plainly states ... ~ William Delbert Gann

I sit far back in my seat, my right foot braced comfortably against the instrument panel, listening to the steady thrumming of the engines, content to reflect that I have at least come a long way since my barnstorming days. Not so long ago, in a rock-fenced field nearby, a young man named Blauvelt stepped away from a sputtering biplane and first sent me into the sky alone. ~ Ernest K. Gann

British comedy - which has been a big inspiration to me for many years - is very different to Australian comedy and different again to American comedy. ~ Jason Gann

I'm sort lucky in that for me, I'm a writer now. I started as an actor but I'm a writer and so things like 'Wilfred' and shows like that are where I escape to. ~ Jason Gann

It's always difficult when you want to do something really new, and you also want it to reach the masses, because the majority of people want to see what they've already seen before, or that they're already familiar with. To open the majority of peoples' minds to something new is difficult. ~ Jason Gann

Dogs are more of a responsibility than kids - you can send a kid off to their grandparents or a nanny, but with a dog you can't do that. ~ Jason Gann

Because every urge but survival had been reduced to nothing, they had become a mutual will, like that which caused whole peoples to unite in desperation. ~ Ernest K. Gann

MaCleod, since you've flown the SeaBee a lot you'll understand when I say it was the only airplane I ever owned that you could put in a dive, loose a cylinder and stall out! ~ Ernest K. Gann

I want a boat that drinks 6, eats 4, and sleeps 2. ~ Ernest K. Gann

He knew that we gave constant lip service to the dictates of safety and howled like Christians condemned to the arena if any compromise were made of it. He knew we were seekers after ease, suspicious, egotistic, and stubborn to a fault. He also knew that none of us would have continued our careers unless we had always been, and still were, helpless before this opportunity to take a chance. ~ Ernest K. Gann

I had a good theater career for years. I played Hamlet when I was 22, and I've played some really great roles. ~ Jason Gann

The moment I do any puppy dog acting, I think the joke is dead. It's in the truth of how I play it, and the real painful honesty that I approach my performance with. ~ Jason Gann

The only characteristic all airliners share is that upon proper urging they are normally capable of leaving the earth's surface. ~ Ernest K. Gann

The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you. ~ Ernest K. Gann

When he climbed into the Penelope or any other airplane, the same change always came over him and the character of the change was so strong that even Stutz himself was aware of it. He exchanged his earthly freedom of thinking for what had to be a series of disciplined facts. To absorb and segregate these facts, all in their right and proper order, was his duty, a$ it was of any professional pilot. Not only was it his duty but it was his sole defense against dependency on luck, and although he was aware of the power of luck, it was indicative that Stutz never considered it as a means to an end as long as he was flying. ~ Ernest K. Gann

Are we lost, or are we found at last? On earth we strive for our various needs, because so goes the fundamental law of man. Aloft, at least for a little while, the needs disappear. Likewise the striving. In the thoughts of man aloft, food and evil become mixed and sometimes reversed. This is the open door to wisdom. Aloft, the earth is ancient and man is young, regardless of his numbers, for there, aloft he may reaffirm his suspicions that he may not be so very much. This is the gateway to humility. ~ Ernest K. Gann

It doesn't look nearly as big as it did the first time I saw one. Mickey McGuire and I used to sit hour after hour in the cockpit of the one that American used for training, at the company school in Chicago, saying to each other, 'My God, do you think we'll ever learn to fly anything this big?' ~ Ernest K. Gann

Ding dong, the witch was dead" murmured Merlin as Gwen headed down the path towards the lake. She turned around and smiled "you're not the wizard of OZ Merlin, you don't get to make that call" she replied icily before diving into the cool crisp water. ~ Louise Gann

We lived in and out of our flight bags, they being our true and only home. Thus, if we were not actually flying or sleeping, we were often lonely and at a loss to occupy ourselves. ~ Ernest K. Gann