"Our ability to conceptualize our own end creates tremendous psychic strains within us; in each man’s chest a tiny ferret of fear at this ultimate knowledge gnaws away at his ego and his sense of purpose. If man really sat back and thought about his impending termination, and his terrifying insignificance and aloneness in the cosmos, he would surely go mad, or succumb to a numbing sense of futility. \\ The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Children begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; as a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But if he’s reasonably strong -- and lucky -- he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s elan. He can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining." - Adriano

Happy Birthday ! LIFE photos from the set of 2001, http://life.time.com/culture... -- "there’s something about Kubrick’s strange, insular onscreen universe that commands our attention. 2001 remains one of those exceedingly rare works of art that feels intrinsically indifferent: indifferent to the usual laws of filmmaking; indifferent to criticism (or praise)." - Adriano