William Macy Quotes

Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself. William Martin*

How dare I be discouraged in the work By anything so trivial As the fear of personal failure? — Paul Williams

Goodman, a friend of the Coens since he worked with them on their second movie, Raising Arizona, laughed about the scene where William Macy tried to escape out of a motel window, only to be dragged back inside by the cops. “Macy in his underwear,” Goodman said, giggling. “That’s our answer to everything,” Ethan said. “You need a dramatic fall, put a character in his undies.

POLLARD had known better, but instead of pulling rank and insisting that his officers carry out his proposal to sail for the Society Islands, he embraced a more democratic style of command. Modern survival psychologists have determined that this “social”—as opposed to “authoritarian”—form of leadership is ill suited to the early stages of a disaster, when decisions must be made quickly and firmly. Only later, as the ordeal drags on and it is necessary to maintain morale, do social leadership skills become important. Whalemen in the nineteenth century had a clear understanding of these two approaches. The captain was expected to be the authoritarian, what Nantucketers called a fishy man. A fishy man loved to kill whales and lacked the tendency toward self-doubt and self-examination that could get in the way of making a quick decision. To be called “fishy to the backbone” was the ultimate compliment a Nantucketer could receive and meant that he was destined to become, if he wasn’t already, a captain. Mates, however, were expected to temper their fishiness with a more personal, even outgoing, approach. After breaking in the green hands at the onset of the voyage—when they gained their well-deserved reputations as “spit-fires”—mates worked to instill a sense of cooperation among the men. This required them to remain sensitive to the crew’s changeable moods and to keep the lines of communication open. Nantucketers recognized that the positions of captain and first mate required contrasting personalities. Not all mates had the necessary edge to become captains, and there were many future captains who did not have the patience to be successful mates. There was a saying on the island: “[I]t is a pity to spoil a good mate by making him a master.” Pollard’s behavior, after both the knockdown and the whale attack, indicates that he lacked the resolve to overrule his two younger and less experienced officers. In his deference to others, Pollard was conducting himself less like a captain and more like the veteran mate described by the Nantucketer William H. Macy: “[H]e had no lungs to blow his own trumpet, and sometimes distrusted his own powers, though generally found equal to any emergency after it arose. This want of confidence sometimes led him to hesitate, where a more impulsive or less thoughtful man would act at once. In the course of his career he had seen many ‘fishy’ young men lifted over his head.” Shipowners hoped to combine a fishy, hard-driving captain with an approachable and steady mate. But in the labor-starved frenzy of Nantucket in 1819, the Essex had ended up with a captain who had the instincts and soul of a mate, and a mate who had the ambition and fire of a captain. Instead of giving an order and sticking with it, Pollard indulged his matelike tendency to listen to others. This provided Chase—who had no qualms about speaking up—with the opportunity to impose his own will. For better or worse, the men of the Essex were sailing toward a destiny that would be determined, in large part, not by their unassertive captain but by their forceful and fishy mate.

Is that you, Macy?” the figure at the desk asked. He did not turn his head. “Is Richardson out of the way for good?” The sound of the voice crystallized Blake’s half-formed suspicions. Suddenly he seemed to see a complete picture, bits of the puzzle fell into place with magical rapidity and he knew suddenly who was responsible for the corruption on the prison planet Venus. He drew a slow breath. “No, it’s not Macy,” he said softly, “and Richardson is far from being out of the way.” His voice loud in the still quietness of the room. The figure at the

and Alexander Starbuck were two of the earliest nonfiction writers to explore the profession of whaling. Macy wrote The History of Nantucket in 1835. It is, as the title suggests, a history of his island home and gives a concise overview of Nantucket's importance in the development of whaling. Starbuck's The History of the American Whale

Obed Macy and Alexander Starbuck were two of the earliest nonfiction writers to explore the profession of whaling. Macy wrote The History of Nantucket in 1835. It is, as the title suggests, a history

to an understanding of that dizzying period, are dated and/or serve primarily as reference works. Obed Macy and Alexander Starbuck were two of the earliest nonfiction writers to explore the profession of whaling. Macy wrote