“I believe life is a continuum, and that no one really dies, they just drop their physical body and we’ll all meet again, like the song says. It’s sad but it’s not devastating if you think like that. Otherwise I don’t see how anybody could ever, once they see someone die, that they’d just disappear forever and that’s what we’re all bound to do. I’m sorry but it just doesn’t make any sense, it’s a continuum, and we’re all going to be fine at the end of the story.”
— David Lynch (RIP)
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
— James Baldwin
“This is also why we have friends, isn’t it? To laugh about random stuff and tell stupid jokes and tease each other and goof off?
I think that’s where I landed with my heavy friendship thoughts this week: a huge chunk of every day should be spent goofing off, and a huge chunk of every friendship should be about laughing and acting absolutely idiotic together.
Life is too short for relentless emotional heavy lifting. We need to be ridiculous and obnoxious and sing dumb songs into each other’s voicemails. We need more dance parties and puppet shows. Friendship should be loving and real, but above all else, it should be fun.”
— Heather Havrilesky
“We know that in the history of all arts, the arrival of perfect realism coincided with perfect decadence. Why is it that when technique is primitive everything is beautiful, and when technique is perfected, almost everything is ugly? Technical perfection can only create boredom, because it only reproduces nature. Why the hell would anyone go to a movie when they can have the real thing? So imitating nature can only read to the death of an art form.”
— Jean Renoir
“It is a shame there is not more levity about what we do, because graphics is not brain surgery. I take the business of design very seriously, but I want to have fun doing it. There is real pleasure in coming up with a witty solution. The pay off when you finally get the answer is a real high. You do not experience that in any other categories of your work.
That is why ideas are very important to me. I have lived my whole life as a designer with the intent of making ideas the central part of my work. When I start on a job, I never set out to be humorous. My ultimate goal is for the idea, and the way it is executed, to be smart. Wit, in my definition, is about being clever, crafty and smart.
I would rather do posters than anything. I like it because they can be solved quickly and I don’t get bored. Many of my pieces would not be nearly as good without words. When I approach one of these poster problems, I often start with words. I use encyclopedias, synonym books, anything. I start with a category, at a point that makes sense, then work to either side of it.
I try to be very calculating in the way I approach a problem. It is never just intuitive. The first thing I do is learn as much as I can. Then I sit down did try to make something happen – I could do this, I could do that. If I know I am not getting anywhere, I get away from the job for a while. I go to a bookstore, turn on the news, take a shower. Then I try to think what subject or element I have not considered, which might offer another avenue.
What usually happens is that I come up with a lot of ideas that I don’t really like. I struggle for the one that I think is perfect. It seems to me that people take as long to solve a graphic problem as there are hours between the drop dead date and when you begin. So it doesn’t really make a difference how long you have.
There are times when I really get stuck, and need outside input. So I speak to someone about it. I am amazed how often a person who is uninvolved will come at the problem from a completely different direction.
It is funny how ideas can just emerge. Once you have done your homework, they sort of present themselves.”
— Woody Pirtle (via A Smile In the Mind)
“I don’t really concern myself too much with how [a design] looks. I am much more interested in what the work says. Finding a small bit of truth in a job or client or piece and letting that be the focal point. That interests me. A lot.”
— James Victore
“When you read a text, you’re on your own time. That is not the case in film. In fact, in film, you’re dominated by my time. But time is different for everyone. Five minutes isn’t the same thing for you as it is for me.”
— Chantal Akerman (via)
Excerpts from a 2004 interview with Johnnie To on his film Throw Down:
“What I want to say at the end is that no matter how much the world around you changes – whether it’s financially or emotionally or, in the most serious case, biological changes… Let’s say you only have two years left to live. How would you live these two years? I want to say to people to live in the moment. No one can guarantee you will have a healthy body, a great life and a great family. We are actually living in a world which is unpredictable and where anything can happen. Life is simply unpredictable. Whatever you expect to happen might not happen. Things happen when you least expect them.
Given that reality, I think that, no matter what kind of obstacle we’re facing, we have to work through it. We have to face it. But don’t face these obstacles with a negative attitude. And after you work through the problem, you will be facing something different and you will have different thoughts. These thoughts may not be as cheerful as the ones you had before, but, once you get used to that, you’ll be okay.
In the film, what I want to say is that…I did not need a villain in the film, nor did I need to portray how tough the circumstances are. I didn’t want that at all. It’s up to the audience to think about their own lives in a personal way. Take Louis Koo’s character as an example. He will gradually lose his eyesight. It’s really tragic, just like a cancer patient. He may have two years left to live, or maybe even only one year. But should he work his way through it? Should he live his life suffering, or should he enjoy life as much as possible? Will he do something meaningful so that the rest of his life had more value than it did before? That’s the positive way of living. I really hope that I can convey to the audience – I did not want to write about the pressure the characters would commonly face in other types of films. I didn’t want any antagonists. I wanted the audience to think about what they would do if they had to confront similar difficulties.”
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“When a friend has a problem, the other friends come and help. If one friend can’t help, another friend would come help. People would offer their help. People would always work together to achieve some goal. In this film, one of the messages I want to tell is never to look at things in a negative way. Look at things in a positive way… We have to do that for our lives. We need to search for that kind of romance. It’s not about money. It’s not about material things. It’s something that happens in the moment. That is something you cherish for the rest of your life.”
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“The thing I want to talk about the most in the film is that even the most successful person can fall down. They have to get back on their feet and start again. And that’s what I want the film to say. Maybe some people think this is nothing special, but I disagree. We all make mistakes. We all can fail. Losing is actually a lesson. If you get back on your feet after losing, then you will be successful. And that’s the theme of our film. You’ve got to keep going. You must get back up after being thrown down.”
— (via)
“I love period films: the possibility of opening a book into the past fascinates me. You don’t have to worry that every last detail is historically accurate; a lack of total authenticity doesn’t matter; in the end a little roughness is not a bad thing. I generally select period materials because all of the stories I do are about the relationships of people to their environment and to each other, and other external questions that we are just as concerned about today as people were in the past. Topics of the moment pass and change; besides, one’s feelings toward contemporary topics tends to distort one’s presentation of them. We can be much more dispassionate and objective, and therefore more truthful, in dealing with the past. To see things of the past from the vantage point of the present is to be able to judge what effect they have had on the present.”
— Ken Russell
“I don’t know who the hell it is that’s ended up convincing us – the people who want to start a revolution – to accept the idea that revolution is apocalyptic, catastrophic, and bloody. We need to grasp once and for all that it’s counterrevolution that’s apocalyptic and catastrophic and bloody. My idea of revolution is of the search for individual happiness through collective happiness, which is the only just form of happiness.”
— Gabriel García Márquez
