TALKING HEADS
What year were you born?
Who are you?
What do you most wish for?
I'm two years old.
- Who are you? - I'm Waldek.
- And what do you want? - Nothing.
- Who are you? - A little boy.
What would you like?
To be a Syrena car.
- Who are you? - 1 don't know.
What would you like?
To paint horses and have a horse.
I'm an ugly brunette.
I'd like to leave school and have a lovely baby.
I'm not really sure who I am,
but I love reading books best.
I'd like to go to America most of all.
I suppose I'm a little different from my friends.
I'd like the pope to come to Poland.
I'm not yet fully prepared
to make serious decisions as yet.
What I'd like most in daily life
is for people to treat one another with more respect.
People should take more notice of one another.
There should be more love within society.
I'm a bit selfish and egotistical.
I'm not respectful to everyone,
and yet I'm a friendly person.
It sounds odd, but it's true.
What would I like? To change my personality.
I wish I didn't have my character flaws. I'd be happier that way.
When I set my mind on achieving something, I usually do.
What would I like?
I'd like everyone to do things for others.
To not just look out for themselves
but for others too.
And I'd like them to understand
that material things alone don't create happiness.
I see myself as a person from an orphanage.
I'd like all people to have a happy childhood.
I'd like everyone to have a beautiful childhood.
I'm an easy-going person who doesn't cause trouble.
I go through life with a smile...
and I'd like things to stay that way. It helps me in life.
I'm a girl who doesn't
really know how to reconcile her dreams
with their practical realization.
I'd like to be more certain
of my criteria for evaluating people and to know good from bad.
I would describe myself
as a carefree optimist and a dreamer.
I'd like to get out of the city...
and live closer to nature and animals.
To tell the truth...
I'm still a nobody...
and I will be for some time.
But in the future...
I'd like to find out...
what it means to be a human being.
At this point in my life I'm still taking.
I'm still acquiring experience and values.
What I'd like — what I think everyone would like —
is freedom in the broadest sense of the word,
the kind of freedom that doesn't favor the strongest.
I'm a student,
so fortunately I still have time before making a final decision
that I guess will bind me for the rest of my life.
I don't like the aggression underlying human relations.
People hate and fear each other terribly.
I'd like them to realize that the real reasons lie without
and start fighting them.
I'm a single mother, alone at home.
Here at the clinic I feel I'm close to people.
One day I'd like to save a person's life
and know that I did that by myself, single-handedly.
I'm a young graduate in engineering,
still full of high moral values and work ethics.
I'd like to stay that way in the years to come.
I'm a driver.
I'd like the Polish people to work harder.
I'm a mountain climber.
Here there's no way to take the true measure of a person,
only in the high mountains.
For me, the most important thing is that we all live courageously.
I'm no different from other people, to be honest.
I'd most like for people...
not to let their fear of others
get in the way of what they do, whether trivial or important.
I'd just like people not to fear each other.
I've worked in many different positions.
I've been an office clerk.
Now I'm an electrician, which gives me more job satisfaction.
As for the future, I don't think my generation
should worry too much about the future.
They should seize the day.
That's always been my philosophy.
I consider myself
a realist.
What would I like?
To provide a modest but sufficient living for my family.
I'm a history teacher.
What matters most to me is freedom for each person
to decide their own fate and make their own choices.
I'm a Catholic.
I'd like to have my own house, my own place to live.
I consider myself a humanist.
It may seem unrealistic, but what I want in life
is to see democracy and tolerance introduced for real
and not just talked about.
Currently I'm a full-time board member
of an organization for youth in a factory.
One day I'd like to be an activist in the field of economics,
which would correspond to my current university studies.
I seem to have practically everything
an average person should want and have.
That's all right, but I feel something's missing.
I'm at that stage in life
where I'd like to make some changes, achieve something.
I don't know what, but something different.
I work, but more importantly, I have two children.
What bothers me most is cronyism and opportunism.
And I'd like more kindness and reason.
I'm a sociologist and a father
and a state worker.
I think the most important thing
is to fulfill one's roles with a clear conscience.
It may sound banal, but in fact it's very difficult.
I have two children, and I've written two novels.
My fears?
Recently I saw a foreign postage stamp with a saying on it:
“The ability to write is the root of democracy.”
I fear that lack of real public debate —
which these days is all fabricated —
and a lack of exchange of ideas,
which is something vital to me as a writer,
and the declining number of new books, the vehicles for new thoughts,
may result in what that envelope alluded to:
the demise of democracy.
I'm a worker to the core.
I wish people were more honest...
and there was better justice.
Ever since I gave up being an academic
and became a taxi driver, I feel more free.
But I realize that personal freedom isn't enough.
To be really liberated and free,
one must live in a democracy
and have a sense of security.
Personal freedom isn't enough.
I'm a chemical engineer,
but now I drink.
What would I like?
Nothing. Everything's just fine.
Who am I? That's a very difficult question.
We all have to live up to so many different expectations
that we can't always be one thing.
However, I'm very clear about what I'd like:
to live in a real world, not one of fiction and facade.
I live in Warsaw. I'm a sociologist.
I have a strong sense of responsibility
and little sense of humor.
I suppose those two traits don't help much in life.
As for my wishes...
they're in this order:
On a personal level
I wish for good health for myself and my loved ones,
and on a wider scale,
I wish for less suffering and humiliation for people
in my country and all over the world.
I'm on the boundary between two mysteries.
One is the natural world, since I'm a human being.
But the other is very strong too,
and that's my religion, questions of faith,
my relationship with God.
It makes me happy personally...
and also gives me joy because I can help others
to be better people and to be happy.
What do I wish for?
To paraphrase a well-known exhortation —
i.e., “Workers of the world, unite!” —
I'd like all good people to unite,
and not against someone else but simply to unite in good.
All my life I've tried —
and usually managed —
not to lie,
to always be honest.
What would I like? I'd like people...
to be grateful to each other.
All my life
I've given and I've worked...
to the best of my ability and health.
Now there's a competition for a monument to Juliusz Stowacki.
I'd like to put together a good proposal for that.
I live with my memories:
from before the war, then the underground,
and then the great postwar reconstruction.
Not all my dreams from that time came true.
I'd like them to come true
for my sons, or perhaps my grandsons.
I'm a humanist...
in my profession and in my convictions.
I'm convinced it's most important to observe
the right of every human being
to his or her own views and dignity.
Most of all I wish...
for peace, for myself and for the world.
I've been a widow for two weeks.
I was left a widow two weeks ago by my late husband, Stanistaw.
That's all.
What do I want? Nothing.
Yes...
I'm 100 years old.
And what would you like?
How much more do I want?
I'd like to live longer.
To live longer.