Quotes About Interpretation

I would think Australians would understand 'guy talk' better than most. Definitely better than Brits.

I don't build because I am an architect. I can make true architecture because I do not build.

Gemma Arterton in 'The Master Builder' at the Almeida - she was absolutely brilliant. Ibsen is difficult and quite hard to follow, but she just brings the stage to life.

Acting isn't like being an athlete. There's no real quantifiable measure. It's just a bunch of people feeling things.

I am not a businessman, I am an artist.

What artists think about the world is often different from how we businessmen see it, and I find that an enriching experience.

The novel succeeds on terms exclusive to literature. A good film succeeds on terms exclusive to the cinema. That's why so many bad novels can become good movies, like 'Jaws' or 'The Godfather.'

Success is based on your perspective.

Your success is in your point of view. It's your life that you're talking about; it's your observations. That's the best lesson that I ever had.

I think the reason my stories have been so successful is that I have a strong sense of metaphor.

We are only beginning to learn what to say in a photograph. The world we live in is a succession of fleeting moments, any one of which might say something significant.

I don't know if there's such a thing as objectivity.

Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing.

If there is such a thing as 'a Cukor style,' I guess it arises out of two principal factors: my own personalized perception of the world and my ability to deal professionally with actors. As far as perception is concerned, I always try to imagine settings through the best possible eyes.

I don't believe there is such a thing as 'moderate Islam.' I think it's better to talk about degrees of belief and degrees of practice.

The artist's job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery. To intuit it, and recognize that the story-germ has some inherent mystery in it, and sort of midwife that mystery into the story in such a way that it isn't damaged in the process, and may even get heightened or refined.

Holy scripture does not hold women back. It's the people that decide to interpret it in such a way for their own, sometimes political, agendas.

You should write songs about what you feel, but you can't write in such a way like it's a diary entry. You should write it in a way that people understand in their lives.

Sometimes you'll write while listening to a piece of music and think it's great, but then you'll go back and read it without the music and go, 'This sucks.'

Before you start production, you have characters you have created without actors in mind, then all of a sudden you've got actors. They bring an enormous amount in creating these characters, and creating the dynamics between the characters that you've written.

It's a blue album, but it's not a blues album. I'm not pretending all of a sudden now I'm blues.

I don't think I see the way bodies move in any special way. People say I do, but everybody moves. I don't see why all of a sudden I'm a specialist in the way bodies move.

That's really the whole point of art - it's to take something commonplace and draw people on a path so that, all of a sudden, they have a new impression of everything around them.

When we deal with questions relating to principles of law and their applications, we do not suddenly rise into a stratosphere of icy certainty.