Quotes About Complexity

I always like things to be as complicated as possible. I don't like an easy ending. I don't like when all the pieces get tied up. As a viewer who loves stories and storytelling, that annoys me.

It's not necessary that everything needs to be spoon-fed to the viewer for every story.

I do think that the emotional weight of 'Biutiful' has blinded some viewers to the beauty and complexity of the film.

I don't think you really can send an exact message, because any two viewers are so disparate, in terms of their backgrounds, their point of view, their histories, that there's no telling what that message might be.

There are lots of great characters in fiction who viewers and readers have engaged with that behave badly. Great characters can be unfaithful. They can lie and cheat.

Well, anytime I make a movie, I like to load it up with more things than you could ever catch on the first viewing.

African-Americans are not a monolithic group. So, we tend to talk about the black community, the black culture, the African-American television viewing audience, but there are just as many facets of us as there are other cultures.

Reducing everything immediately to good and evil is bad history - not only because it isn't true, but because reductionism is unpersuasive; it is boring. Good history, on the other hand, demands that one talk socratically - that one can present alternate viewpoints, not strawman arguments.

I don't have clear-cut positions. I get baffled by things. I have viewpoints. Sometimes they change.

It's difficult in the abstract to appreciate that those with morally objectionable viewpoints can still be good people.

'Babel' is about the point of view of others. It literally includes points of views as experienced from the other side. It is not about a hero. It is not about only one country. It is a prism that allows us to see the same reality from different angles.

As is often the case when things are complicated, extreme views have superficial appeal. On the one extreme, some see China as an inevitable enemy that must be contained; on the other hand, there are those who see China as a slowly developing democracy that can be embraced.

Humanity is not common in its views.

The great thing about the public is that they're quite capable of believing two absolutely contrary views at the same time.

In a weird way, our satirists probably have the most complicated, nuanced views of our politics now - Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver. I don't know what that says about our country.

Muslim views are not a monolithic blob.

Most of my books have always worked through juxtaposition, jumping through different point of views and time.

I think what we should do as historians is understand. And we can have our own views about how things turned out, but I think, in making judgements, we're getting into tricky territory.

It is not the case that I can predict your views knowing that you are a white male. I cannot predict your views if you are a black female, and it is height of both arrogance and condescension to think that somebody can be type casted on the base of.

What's great about 'Game of Thrones' is they change the perspective, the POV, all the time. So you will have one story told by one character and you'll go, 'Oh my God, horrible', and then maybe the season after you have the same story told but from the person you thought was just the most horrible, vile creature.

I feel like life is much greater than a hero or a villain: there's good people that sometimes make mistakes.

If I play a villain, I try to find his lightness and his good side. And if I play a hero or a good guy, I'll try to find his darkness or his flaws. Because I don't believe in good and evil. I believe in grays.

Sometimes there is more exploration in the character for a villain.

I prefer to play the villain or the antihero.