I was recently lucky enough to get a copy of the book, The Great All-Nighter, Midnight Madness, by Tom Wright. It is somewhat similar to the movie, but more similar to the script before changes were made in filming.
(Double click for close-up)
Leon's law of democratic inspiration: Anyone is capable of having a great thought. Farmers, doctors, plumbers, painters, soldiers, tinkers, and veterinarians are all equally likely to conceive of a unique idea.
Leon's law of synchronicity: The same facts, given simultaneously to different people, may lead to wholly different conclusions. Modern Man should poll his hunches.
Leon's theory of probability: Given the speedy changes taking place in the modern world, life is getting to be unpredictable. Therefore, nothing is likely to stay the same for very long, so nothing is probably likely.
Leon's second theory of probability: It's probably a good idea to overestimate, rather than underestimate, the amount of time it's going to take you to do anyting.
Leon's theory of ideas: In the Great All-Nighter, there are no right ideas and there are no wrong ideas. But if you don't come up with the right idea at the right time, you may be considered wrong.
Leon's secret law: There is no such thing as a secret.
Leon's law of beer consumption: Beer is healthy. It comes from hops, grains, and barley. Like wine which comes from grapes, it proceeds from the bounty of Mother Nature. But, then, of course, so do tornadoes, floods, and locusts.
Leon's theory of civil disobedience: The quality of mercy isn't always justice.
Leon's law of faithful companionship: True friends never die.
Leon's philosophy of playing games: Games should be played not only for practical reasons, such as winning trophies ro money, or for purely aesthetic enjoyment to please your senses, but to train the mind.
To be a real champion in game-playing, your mind must be tuned to your Unconscious. If you really wish to become master of your game, technical knowledge of it is not enough. You have to progress beyond simply knowing your techniques so that the art of game-playing becomes an "artless art" and you won't even have to think about it.
To be an outstanding player in The Great All-Nighter, you must have a pure heart. To appreciate the experience, you must seek the answers to the clues by not seeking the answers to the clues. You know the answers by not knowing them.
No reasonable player should expect me, Leon, the Grand Master of the game, to do more than hint at the experiences that will liberate and change you, or to attempt to describe the unimaginable and ineffable "Truth" you will discover when you play The Great All-Nighter. You must play it yourself. Unless you enter into the mystic experience by direct participation in a game of your own, you will remain on the outside, twisting and turning like a wind gyre at sea.
The game can only be understood by the player: someone who is not tempted to gain by underhand methods what the Great All-Nighter experience withholds from him. The merely curious have no right to demand anything.
You must play the game on your own. You must organize your own game. You must be patient.
Life is a waiting game.
Leon's outlaw law: The only time it pays to cheat is when you're making the rules of the game as you go along.
Leon's Cinderella theory: There was a very good reason why the coach turned into a pumpkin.
Leon's drought theory: Better make hay while the sun shines because there's no telling when it might rain.
Leon's law of solitude: Since we're all alone in the end, we may as well get along while we're together.
Leon's game law: It's not whether you win or lose that counts, it's the game you chose to play.
Leon's theory of universal knowledge: There is a flow of energy running through the universe that contains all information attainable in this life. There is no such thing as coincidence. All we know comes to us from other places and other times and we are meant to know what we know.
(Book cover to be pictured soon, as well as info on how to get your own copy of the book!)
