Offensiveness is a bad yardstick for the measurement of whether something is allowed to exist or not. ‘Offensiveness’ shifts drastically based on position in a way that sturdier models of ethics do not. It is slippery, the last go-to for people who don’t understand what they’re fighting for or against, people who are deploying language without understanding its context.

You need to accept that confusion and struggle are going to be constant companions when you’re creating. This shouldn’t be a depressing fact because once you realise that no one can help you but yourself, that’s when you’re on the road to really doing something worthwhile.

That was the last spontaneous youth thing. I can't think of anything that's not been stage managed since then.

1. Always take the initiative.
2. There is nothing wrong with spending a night in jail if it means getting the shot you need.
3. Send out all your dogs and one might return with prey.
4. Never wallow in your troubles; despair must be kept private and brief.
5. Learn to live with your mistakes.
6. Expand your knowledge and understanding of music and literature, old and modern.
7. That roll of unexposed celluloid you have in your hand might be the last in existence, so do something impressive with it.
8. There is never an excuse not to finish a film.
9. Carry bolt cutters everywhere.
10. Thwart institutional cowardice.
11. Ask for forgiveness, not permission.
12. Take your fate into your own hands.
13. Learn to read the inner essence of a landscape.
14. Ignite the fire within and explore unknown territory.
15. Walk straight ahead, never detour.
16. Manoeuvre and mislead, but always deliver.
17. Don’t be fearful of rejection.
18. Develop your own voice.
19. Day one is the point of no return.
20. A badge of honor is to fail a film theory class.
21. Chance is the lifeblood of cinema.
22. Guerrilla tactics are best.
23. Take revenge if need be.
24. Get used to the bear behind you.

Almost a year after his disastrous world premiere, Gosling reflected on the haters. “I’ve had other experiences where you try to make something that other people are going to like, and you feel foolish in the end, to pretend to know what that is,” he said at SXSW. “Only you know what you like and want to see, and it’s the only thing—especially if you’re going to direct a film, you have to make like a thousand decisions every day—the only place you can come from is what you gravitate towards, and what works for you.”

The intrepid Gosling has waved off his brutalizing critics by comparing filmmaking to high school, a metaphor that equates Hollywood’s golden boy to the artsy Goth being pounced on by the bullies. “Any time you stick your neck out in high school there’s someone right there to chop your head off,” he told Anne Thompson. As Lost River champion Del Toro put it, boosting Gosling for being true to his inner weirdo: “Use what you are, always as a source of pride, and wear it as a giant ‘Fuck you’ to the world when they tell you that you cannot do something.”

“I now inhabit a life I don’t deserve,” Mr. Carr wrote at the conclusion of “The Night of the Gun,” “but we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn’t end any time soon.”