Daily Dialogue — May 21, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg: [stares out the window] No.
Gage: Do you think I deserve it?
Mark Zuckerberg: [looks at Gage] What?
Gage: Do you think I deserve your full attention?
Mark Zuckerberg: I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition, and I don’t want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no.
Gage: Okay — no. You don’t think I deserve your attention.
Mark Zuckerberg: I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try — but there’s no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention — you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing. [pauses] Did I adequately answer your condescending question?
— The Social Network (2010), screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, book by Ben Mezrich
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Aaron Sorkin. Today’s suggestion by Anita Brandt Burgoyne.
Trivia: David Fincher’s favorite line in the film is, “I’m just checking your math on that. Yes, I got the same thing.”
Dialogue On Dialogue: I think of The Social Network as Sorkin’s version of Citizen Kane. The scene below:
Reminds me of this scene:
“The trouble is, you don’t realize you’re talking to two people. As Charles Foster Kane, who has 82,634 shares of Public Transit Preferred. You see, I do have a general idea of my holdings. I sympathize with you. Charles Foster Kane is a scoundrel. His paper should be run out of town. A committee should be formed to boycott him. You may, if you can form such a committee, put me down for a contribution of $1,000 dollars. On the other hand, I am the publisher of the Inquirer! As such, it’s my duty — and I’ll let you in on a little secret, it’s also my pleasure — to see to it that decent, hard-working people in this community aren’t robbed blind by a pack of money-mad pirates just because — they haven’t anybody to look after their interests.”
Similar bite, edge, and smarts.
