Woody Allen has a new movie, Cassandra’s Dream. In an interview, the director talks about his view of life as a "tremendously tragic event." He says, "I do have a bleak, pessimistic view of life and man’s fate, the human condition, but I do feel there are some extremely amusing oases in that morass."

 

I don’t have a "bleak, pessimistic" view. I guess I have a balanced view. Kharmically, it would seem to me that an approximately equal number of good things and bad things will happen to anybody in this life. But you can have a sense of humor about anything, good or bad. I think that’s why there are so many images of the Buddha laughing … humor is the great tie-breaker of life. If you laugh through life, if you stay bemused, you can handle anything – and you’ll have some sense of enjoyment about the whole thing.