Quotes About Interpretation

You have to have really thick skin. Art is obviously there to be criticized and there to be taken in different ways. Not everyone is going to like what you do.

When people told me that 'Polladhavan' was a remake of 'Bicycle Thieves,' I wanted to laugh because comparing 'Polladhavan' to 'Bicycle Thieves' is a disgrace to the latter.

When you're an actor, you get your ideas from everywhere - even from someone on the street. We're total thieves!

There's a thin line between to laugh with and to laugh at.

But there's a thin line between songwriting and arranging.

For example, the opposition between acute and grave phonemes has the capacity to suggest an image of bright and dark, of pointed and rounded, of thin and thick, of light and heavy, etc.

There is a very thin line dividing characterisation from impersonation. I've to make sure I don't cross over into mimicry.

There was a time when I only wanted to show off, but as I've grown older, I've realised that acting isn't an end in itself. You act to communicate something, and if you have to use an accent or become thin or fat, that's part of your job.

The most seductive thing about art is the personality of the artist himself.

The difference between science and the arts is not that they are different sides of the same coin even, or even different parts of the same continuum, but rather, they are manifestations of the same thing. The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity.

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.

I never said half the things I said.

To me, the writer's main job is to just make the story unscroll in such a way that the reader is snared - she's right there, seeing things happen and caring about them. And if you dedicate yourself to this job, the meanings more or less take care of themselves. That's the theory, anyway.

The arts stimulate imagination. They provoke thought. And then, having done that, all sorts of other things happen.

There's a logic to dreams that doesn't necessarily follow linear narrative. You don't know why things happen, it's your subconscious pushing you, to give you information.

Why is it okay to write a work of literary fiction where horrible, explicit things happen, where you can't write a book of humor where silly, explicit things are happening?

It's very rare to watch a movie and think, 'That's the movie we shot!' So many things happen, with edits and things getting cut out.

When you fail to communicate, there are gray areas. And when there's gray areas, then bad things happen.

I think we all have different personalities... and even in relationships, we can be called psycho, and we can be called sweet, based on what the person feels about you.

From earliest times, humans - explorers and thinkers - have wanted to figure out the shape of their world. Forever, the way we've done that is through storytelling. It is difficult to let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I think a liberal arts education isn't necessarily about doing something with your degree; it's about becoming a critical thinker. And I think that critical thinking is so integral to being an actor.

I make art to figure out what I'm thinking, not to tell people what I think.

As an actor, I'm ambivalent because I'm focused on the other person and what they're giving me, what I need to be giving them, and what the character is thinking.