"Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity." - Will Smith

From Slacker

"It’s like every choice or decision you make… the thing you choose not to do… fractions off and becomes its own reality, you know… and just goes on from there forever. I mean, it’s like… uh, you know, in the Wizard of Oz… when Dorothy meets the Scarecrow and they do that little dance at that crossroads… and they think about going all those directions… then they end up going in that one direction. I mean, all those other directions, just because they thought about it… became separate realities. They just went on from there and lived the rest of their life. I mean, entirely different movies, but we’ll never see it… because, you know, we’re kind of trapped in this one reality restriction type of thing. Another example would be like back there at the bus station. As I got off the bus, the thought crossed my mind… you know, just for a second, about not taking a cab at all. But, you know, like maybe walking, or bumming a ride or something like that. I’m kind of broke right now. I should’ve done that probably. But, uh, just ‘cause that thought crossed my mind… there now exists at this very second… a whole another reality where I’m at the bus station… and you’re probably giving someone else a ride, you know? I mean, and that reality thinks of itself as this - it thinks of itself as the only reality, you know. I mean, at this very second, I’m in that - I’m back at the bus station just hanging out, you know… probably thumbing through a paper. You know, probably going up to a pay phone. Say this beautiful woman just comes up to me, just starts talking to me, you know? Uh, she ends up offering me a ride, you know. We’re hitting it off. Go play a little pinball. And we go back to her apartment, I mean, she has this great apartment. I move in with her, you know. Say I have a dream some night… that I’m with some strange woman I’ve never met… or I’m living at some place I’ve never seen before. See, that’s just a momentary glimpse into this other reality… that was all created back there at the bus station. You know, shoot. And then, you know… I could have a dream from that reality into this one… that, like, this is my dream from that reality. Of course, that’s kind of like that dream I just had on the bus, you know. The whole cycle type of thing. Man, shit! I should’ve stayed at the bus station."
-Written by Richard Linklater. Opening lines of Slacker.