Quotes About Interpretation

When you build characters from the outside in, they become, oftentimes they become like 'Saturday Night Live' characters or they become like caricatures of the character.

If I go out and do a set, there's a good chance that I'll watch another comedian. I'll think - not necessarily their words, but oftentimes the message that's behind the words - the sort of belief that their unspokenly advocating, well, sometimes that's offensive.

Oftentimes reoccurring dreams are ways a loved one is trying to come through and deliver a message.

I've seen people who like a certain song write on their Instagram what they think the lyrics are - which they aren't. I'm like, 'Oh, that's interesting - you can create your own adventure with some of these songs.' Which is really cool.

If you write an original, it's like you went in and dug a well, and you hit oil. But an adaptation, it's like the oil well's on fire, and they bring you in to put the fire out and get it working again - or something like that.

Sometimes when you have a song, you listen to it and say, 'It's OK. It's music to drive to.' But then there are songs where you can actually hear it as a movie.

I read a lot of scripts, and there's a lot of good writing and a lot of OK writing and a lot of crappy writing. And even with the really good writing, it doesn't necessarily speak to me.

Apparently, I'm the angriest man. I don't know. It's just an interpretation. If it was someone else, they might be called focused or competitive. I'm not that angry or grumpy, but if you want to say I'm angry because I'm focused or competitive, then that's okay.

It's okay to be misunderstood - as long as you're not misunderstood by your consumers.

One advantage of doing Lear at 70 is that you don't have to play an old man.

My opinion of covers is that unless you're going to change and take a cover in a new direction, it's gonna get put up against the old one, and you're gonna lose. It's like, which would you rather listen to? The Righteous Brothers' 'Loving Feeling' or Hall and Oates' 'Loving Feeling?'

I'm rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it's no longer his... I just see what people make of it.

Of course I'm schooled in the old school method: taking what I think the director wants, then reworking it through my own brain and heart.

I think I look at media differently than anyone older would.

I wanted other people to see what's in my mind as a young 14-year-old girl because sometimes, when men - or just older people - try to make films from what they think is a kid's perspective, it doesn't come out the right. It's like, 'Ehhh, that's probably not what we would do!'

I read one book where the characters never said anything; instead, they spent all their time grunting and bleating and hissing and cooing and growling and chirping and... It was like a menagerie in there. After a while, I wasn't even taking in the rest of the book, because that was all I could see: the dialogue tags.

If one line about the film excites me, I try to take it forward.

One of the things I like about music is it's an abstract art, totally abstract, where you can convey an emotion, which I find amazing.

I think that one of the things that influences me most as a composer is to what extent I can deconstruct and reconstruct the material that I'm working with.

One of the things that all authors of fiction must learn to judge is whether - and in what detail - to describe the face of a character.

One of the things I wanted to do was direct. There've been a couple of times that a director will walk up and say something to me, and all it does is make me mad. Inside I'll go, 'Well, that wasn't helpful at all.'

One of the things I love about jazz music is that intent is first and execution is second. In classical music, execution is first and intent is second, meaning that you must first learn a piece before you can truly add your interpretation to it.

There's no one thing that is true. They're all true.

The Elizabethan mind wanted and demanded that one word could mean 50 things. What Shakespeare offers us is not ambiguity; it's choices.