It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books is the first feature film by Richard Linklater, filmed on Super 8 and edited at a public-access television cable TV station, with Linklater starring and handling all production duties. The film was released in 1988.
The film is 85 minutes long and features little dialogue. In its minimal and non-traditional plot, the main character travels about the country meeting with various acquaintances when not taking part in various mundane, day-to-day activities. There is no real rising action or climax, and Linklater's character does not change substantially throughout the course of the film.
The film never enjoyed a widespread release. It is available on DVD only as a bonus feature on Slacker from The Criterion Collection.
Famous quotes containing the words reading books, impossible, learn, plow, reading and/or books:
“Learning is acquired by reading books; but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various editions of them.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“It is impossible to give a clear account of the world, but art can teach us to reproduce it—just as the world reproduces itself in the course of its eternal gyrations. The primordial sea indefatigably repeats the same words and casts up the same astonished beings on the same sea-shore.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“... it is the desert’s grimness, its stillness and isolation, that bring us back to love. Here we discover the paradox of the contemplative life, that the desert of solitude can be the school where we learn to love others.”
—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)
“A plow, they say, to plow the snow.
They cannot mean to plant it, no....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon—destroying ignorance, poverty and despair before they can destroy us. A nation that doesn’t read much doesn’t know much. And a nation that doesn’t know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box and the voting booth...The challenge, therefore, is to convince future generations of children that carrying a book is more rewarding than carrying guns.”
—Jim Trelease (20th century)
“The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull, and dry;
The books that we would like to read we are ashamed to buy;
The books that people talk about we never can recall;
And the books that people give us, oh, they’re the worst of all.”
—Carolyn Wells (1870–1942)