Control Topics

The method of painting is the natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.... I can control the flow of paint: there is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end.
—Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)

Managing Editor: That’s rotten. ‘Costello slaying starts gang war.’ That’s what I want.
Copy Chief: I’m working on that angle. I’ve got four men on it.
Managing Editor: Four. You’ll need forty men on this story for the next five years. You know what’s happening. This town is up for the grabs, get me. You know Costello was the last of the old- fashioned gang leaders. There’s a new crew coming out, and every guy that’s got money enough to buy a gun is going to try to step in his place. You see, they’ll be shooting each other like rabbits for the control of the booze business. You get it. It’ll be just like war. That’s it—war. You put that in the lead. War—gang war.
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)

I don’t think that a leader can control to any great extent his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)