Quotes About Complexity

I am oblique; I think that has to do with my own nature. I like trying to do things which work on many levels, because I think it is terribly important to give an audience a lot of things they might not get as well as those they will, so that finally the film does take on a texture and is not just simplistic communication.

A good story, just like a good sentence, does more than one job at once. That's what literature is: a story that does more than tell a story, a story that manages to reflect in some way the multilayered texture of life itself.

It's nice to see different dimensions of a character. A love interest and family life are always, I think, important in creating layers and textures.

People see me as cute, but I'm so much more than that.

Culture hides much more than it reveals, and strangely enough, what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants.

Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems.

Gone are the days when heroes are emotionally locked away from the world until the end of the book, and thank goodness for that. Modern romance heroes are more complex than ever.

Even on my most angry song, I'm also still saying, 'Thank you for helping me to learn.' I've always wanted to give voice to that complexity in our experience.

I'm very thankful I'm finding my way, and people are excited to bring me into roles that demand a certain complexity.

Margaret Thatcher was a lady. I suppose she was a woman in a man's world, but that's about the only nice thing I have to say.

The first thing I didn't understand was my life. It's a mystery. And today I don't understand economy or politics. I don't know why politics or economy are destroying the world, but I will understand after understanding.

Lebanon is not only burning buildings and people crying in the street. When you say 'Lebanon,' especially to foreigners, that's the first thing they think of.

The first thing to recognize not just about Afghanistan but about any poor undeveloped country is that as big as it looks on the map, it's much bigger when you're there.

It's very difficult for me to look at politics with clear eyes. I'll read a story in the paper and the first thing that pops into my head is, what would my dad say about that? Then I try to break out of that and think, 'What would Said say about that,' and then it gets complicated.

I wanted to do something heroic if I was going to be on TV. And the first thing that appeals to me once I have decided I don't want to be the bad guy is to find things that are not black and white.

I think insanity is the hardest thing to play.

I love emotional, intense stuff; it's easier to grab onto than just being simple. Being simple and relaxed can be the hardest thing. It can be easier to get your hooks into something big.

Writing about your family is the hardest thing, unless you had the perfect happy family life, which very few of us have had.

There can never be a single, satisfactory comprehensive account of the 'history of the British empire.'

The minute I understand a man, he is no longer exciting and a challenge to me. And the last thing in the world I want is for a man to understand me and know what's always going on inside my head. It takes away from all my mystery, which, as I've told you before, is the most important thing between a man and a woman.

Gray is the color... the most important of all... absent of opinion, nothing, neither/nor.

The one thing that I do is take really complicated systems and subjects and make them accessible to regular people.

I have never felt that the one thing that I am 'known for' is what I am.

I think boldness is not the only thing in my personality, but there is lot more.