Quotes About Relevance

We really set out in all our books to say something. Every one is an effort to bring the reader over and show them our theory as to why what we're talking about needs to be talked about.

If you are writing a story and trying to draw an audience to come and hear you tell it, it's got to in some way relate to them. Who wants to come and hear about your specific problems? It's not therapy - it's supposed to be a communal piece of entertainment.

I don't pay attention to target audiences and therefore I often hear that I am a ratings killer, somebody who fundamentally doesn't care whether one person is watching or an entire soccer stadium.

As I said, I spent most of my adult life thinking I didn't have a vote, and therefore that what I thought didn't matter.

I don't believe that classical architecture is enough to engage people anymore. They say: 'So what else is new?'

The thing that alarms me is that there are so many clergymen who say that the so-called 'new morality' is all right. They say we're living in a new generation; let's be relevant, let's change God's law. Let's say that adultery is all right under certain circumstances; fornication's all right under certain circumstances. If it's 'meaningful.'

If you aim to be controversial for the sake of it you'd end up with a very thin and meaningless show.

There's a thin line between catering to the masses and making a fool of yourself; I try to walk that line.

If you're not ready the moment things happen, then you're irrelevant, you might as well not go.

If I'm speaking to the streets and for the streets, they gon' respond. I don't even be thinking about blowing up.

Beyonce may be a gifted entertainer, but no one should really care what she thinks about any serious issue confronting our nation.

Nobody ever thinks a song is about them. Well, not when it's mean. When it's a good song everybody thinks it's about them. And when it's mean, nobody thinks it's about them.

China in particular is an absolutely fascinating place to be. Culturally and politically and economically it's becoming more and more relevant. If you look at how China is perceived in different parts of the world, you can recognize it's very dynamic. It's also challenging what it thinks of itself.

Who really cares what a celebrity thinks on a given issue?

Every work of art belongs to his time. I would not paint again the Mona Lisa in the third dimension.

Though rock is not the force that it once was in America, it still has a loyal fan base that always seems to continue regardless of what popular culture deems as the 'cool thing.'

I never give up on anything, because you come back around, and suddenly the thing you thought you'd never do is relevant.

I've always believed that no subject is off-limits as long as you can find a way to make it significant, thoughtful, and interesting.

In 19th-century France, artists were part of government. Artists are very sensitive to their time. They're very thoughtful people - it makes sense to hear what they have to say.

I mean, don't forget the earth's about five thousand million years old, at least. Who can afford to live in the past?

You must take into account the actual distinction between truth and fact. It is beyond all human power to tell all the facts. Your whole lifetime spent at nothing else would not tell all the facts of one morning in your life, just any ordinary morning when you get up, dress, get breakfast and wash the dishes. Facts are infinite in number. The truth is a meaning underlying them; you tell the truth by selecting the facts to illustrate it.

I think there is a great deal of interest still in the Christian faith.

Who has something at stake here?

battle the clock with a set of focusing questions: Why does the story matter? What's the point? Why is the story being told? What does the story say about life, the world, the times we live in?