Quotes from Jim Jarmusch

Contradiction was something I really like when it is embraced in that kind of philosophy.

[Iggi Pop] is very self-taught, self-educated, but, man, that guy knows about so many things.

Stupid f***ing white man.

I have a real respect for tobacco as a substance, and it just seems very funny how the Western attitude is, "Wow, people are addicted to this, think of all the money you can make off it."

Before she married my father, my mother was a film reviewer for The Akron Beacon Journal - a small newspaper.

It's hard to get lost if you don't know where you're going.

When I get depressed, or anything, I go 'think of all the music I haven't even heard yet!' So, it's the one thing. Imagine the world without music. Man, just hand me a gun, will you?

Select only things to steal that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent

Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul.

Specific music starts feeding my imagination and gives me a landscape that corresponds somehow, in some abstract way, to the world I'm just starting to imagine.

I think of poets as outlaw visionaries in a way.

A lot of innovation in language comes from poetry.

Good acting is about reacting, not tryingto express something, but reacting to a situation as the character.I don't like acting acting.

I didn't get my degree at NYU; I got it later, they gave me an honourary one.

If you go into a bar in most places in America and even say the word poetry, you'll probably get beaten up. But poetry is a really strong, beautiful form to me, and a lot of innovation in language comes from poetry.

I don't like American football. I think it's boring and ridiculous and predictable. But baseball is very beautiful. It's played on a diamond.

It's a sad and beautiful world.

I always start with characters rather than with a plot, which many critics would say is very obvious from the lack of plot in my films - although I think they do have plots - but the plot is not of primary importance to me, the characters are.

Hopefully, if not it's not working right. I'm like a navigator and I try to encourage our collaboration and find the best way that will produce fruit. I like fruit. I like cherries, I like bananas.

I didn't get my degree at NYU I got it later, they gave me an honourary one.

I think it comes from really liking literary forms. Poetry is very beautiful, but the space on the page can be as affecting as where the text is. Like when Miles Davis doesn't play, it has a poignancy to it.

If you go into a bar in most places in America and even say the word poetry, you'll probably get beaten up. But poetry is a really strong, beautiful form to me, and a lot of innovation in language comes from poetry.

Cricket makes no sense to me. I find it beautiful to watch and I like that they break for tea. That is very cool, but I don't understand. My friends from The Clash tried to explain it years and years ago, but I didn't understand what they were talking about.

If anyone tells you there is only one way, their way, get as far away from them as possible, both physically and philosophically.