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UNITED STATES—Famously articulated by Alfred Hitchcock as the secret to constructing his movie stories, a MacGuffin is the object of overwhelming importance for the characters that drives a story forward while having little importance in overall plot. The briefcase of money and the Big W in It’s a Mad Mad World,” the uranium-filled wine bottles in Hitchcock’s “Notorious”—these are...

UNITED STATES—She was crouched asleep, knees to her chin, by the sink in the laundromat. When I rushed around the corner, she started like a frightened animal. It’s hard to say who was more frightened, she or me. “This place closes at 11,” I said. “Where’s there a grocery store,” she said, gathering up a couple flowered, brightly colored pieces of...

UNITED STATES—Indifference is freedom from our own capriciousness, a pivotal quality for cultivating life success and industriousness. Indifference means being unenslaved by outcome. Being open to all the charming and not-so-charming possibilities multiplies the chances for contentment. Tony de Mello (inspirational wiseman) compares it to ordering soup at a restaurant. You have your heart set on French onion soup,...

UNITED STATES—When I meet an idol back stage it is seldom easy to convey all their work has meant through the eons, how it has filtered through and shaped my life. It happened to me last week in Beverly Hills where Dick Cavett was playing himself in “Hellman v. McCarthy." All through high school I used to have lunch...

UNITED STATES—A journalist posed an intriguing question to me. Knowing what you know today, what would you have chosen to do differently in your writing methods? Top of the list would be to develop independent judgment as soon as possible. This quality of judgment plays as vital role in health and nutrition as in becoming the next Ernest Hemingway. Independent...

UNITED STATES—Pizza in my book is about as appetizing as measles; it’s just a hunk of bread. And consuming bread deprives us of an effective way to maintain and improve shape, which is to prefer veggies and fruits over bready, starchy foods. Generally speaking, pizza is on my no-fly list. Now a funny thing happened in my house. My daughter...

UNITED STATES—Persistence is like the weather. Persistence is something we talk an awful lot about and do precious little about. I was reminded of it when reading a great quote from Jim Watkins, “A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.” That’s real purty, but how does it translate into action? Persistence cannot...

UNITED STATES—I reviewed my diary from 1989-90 and found an entry that divulged much more about the weather and a prize fight watched on television than what I tersely referred to “an interesting proposal.” The proposal was a plane ticket to Amsterdam and a job packaging opiates to be sent back to the U.S. At the time I noted,...

UNITED STATES—Tossing and turning the other sleepless night in Hollywood, I made a shocking discovery. Without ever having suspected it, there lurked within me a regret, a full-fledged, ripe, bruisingly painful, honest-to-God regret. Before this night I had always prided myself a member of that wise tribe that exclaims, "Regrets? I have no regrets. None at all." The tossing and...

UNITED STATES—The obituary for the celebrated Look-Life shutterbug, Phil Stern, whose lens caught scenes of war and froze iconic images of Marilyn and James Dean for all time, struck a dissonant chord when the scribe just had to chip in “Stern, a longtime smoker, had emphysema.” You know, maybe he died because he was older than the hills (he was...