EVEN MORE THAN MASTERBATION and self-deprecation, Woody Allen is obsessed with death. It’s part of the opening monologue in Annie Hall, and his musings on this subject dominate his other movies and most of his writings. His adages are so amusing and plentiful that I will be distributing them sporadically via three separate columns. Part I explores the relationship between Love and Death. Part II will look at the Advantages and the Disadvantages of Death, and Part III is just funny death stuff.
These quotes are taken from Woody Allen’s books, articles and films including his 1975 Russian satire Love and Death.
“Sex and death. Two things that come but once in a lifetime but, at least after death, you’re not nauseous.”
“The differences between sex and death is, with death you can do it alone and nobody’s going to make fun of you.”
“All men fear death. It’s a natural fear that consumes us all. We fear death because we feel that we haven’t loved well enough or loved at all, which ultimately are one and the same. However, when you make love with a truly great woman, one that deserves the utmost respect in this world and one that makes you feel truly powerful, that fear of death completely disappears. Because when you are sharing your body and heart with a great woman, the world fades away. You two are the only ones in the entire universe. You conquer what most lesser men have never conquered before; you have conquered a great woman’s heart, the most vulnerable thing she can offer to another. Death no longer lingers in the mind. Fear no longer clouds your heart. Only passion for living, and for loving, become your sole reality. This is no easy task for it takes insurmountable courage. But remember this, for that moment when you are making love with a woman of true greatness, you will feel immortal.”
“I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face like some rhino hunters I know, it is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds. Until it returns, as it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again.”
Next week: The meaning of death according to a funeral director
No analysis of Woody’s psyche? I hope you’ll do that at some point.
One thing that struck me about the quotes you included is how completely he objectifies people. No nuance: “all men fear death,” “a Great Woman.” I don’t know: he’s a much better film director than a philosopher. But he is a great director partly because his characters bring the personal touch to an otherwise sterile philosophy.
Best of Woody Allen; there's a reason sex has been described as a "little death." And therein lies a clue---that in the moment of surrender we cease to be a circumscribed individual, and join with something larger than ourselves. The flow of another, the flow of the universe. Something bigger than the embodied "I."