Quotes About Interpretation

My films are never about what Hong Kong is like, or anything approaching a realistic portrait, but what I think about Hong Kong and what I want it to be.

It's hard for me to consider something in cinema or theater as something realistic.

People have told me that the dialogue in '100 Bullets' is very realistic. I don't agree.

'Alternative facts' is really one of the better things that's come out in a long time. 'Alternative facts?' It's brilliant! Really? Alternative facts? There are two different realities?

You will not ever perceive the truth that is reality. There are many realities.

I don't think the relationship between novels and realities are one to one. Of course novels play different roles. It's essentially just a long narrative form. What you use that long narrative form for can be very different.

I've written almost 200 songs with Bad Religion. No matter where you look in our history, the focus has been trying to instill some of these disturbing realities about the world, some of the implications of evolution into an artistic format that can be interpreted by people who may never study evolution.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

We don't live in the world of reality, we live in the world of how we perceive reality.

I'm not that interested in recreating reality. I'm interested in recreating an emotional truth.

Movies become art after editing. Instead of just reproducing reality, they juxtapose images of it. That implies expression; that's art.

Reality is not what it is. It consists of the many realities which it can be made into.

I believe good writing can save bad art.

I love a mask. It's why I've got a thing about good writing. When you're acting, you're going into someone else's work. You're behind his words; it's not you.

Thank goodness for me, 'Smallville''s Lois Lane is younger, so there's a little bit of play with the character.

I think I know the gospel pretty well, and I'd say the CBO is not the gospel.

All literature is gossip.

Sometimes I think to get to the emotional level of a scene, you don't necessarily have to have experienced the exact thing that person has experienced, but whatever you have in your life that has gotten you to that place is usually enough.

Legislative language is governed by a law of etymology that is also the ancient code of the bureaucracy: It doesn't have to be right, it just has to be close enough for government work. If they understand what you mean, it doesn't matter what you say or how you say it.

A burger is a black dress; a kebab is a Met Gala gown.

You'll read a script, and it'll grab me, or it won't.

Social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings.

I feel like you could watch 'Grand Budapest' without sound, and it would still be funny.

I imagine explaining a work of art to my grandmother in five minutes, and if I can't explain it in five minutes, then it's too obtuse or esoteric.