John Quotes

A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States… [we] must design a stable, low-consumption economy.

I'm a great believer in what happens on the field should stay there.

...More than almost any current book, DTU will wake the reader from his dogmatic slumbers. It is eminently readable, challenging, and provocative.

If I am wrong and you are right then the democratic process of the Australian community will vindicate you and condemn me.

I'm all for it. In these days, regional marketing is the only way to survive.

Occasionally projects just take off unexpectedly, sometimes you can work away at sketches and ideas for years before they are published. There are a number of authors I would be eager to illustrate.

Don't breed, don't buy, don't even accept giveaways.

Why watch someone kissing when people really close their eyes when they kiss?

Advertising was fairly simple work, and I really just wanted a job where I could sit and write every day and not get fired for it like I had at other jobs, but it was fun.

I think it would be very difficult to play somebody if they didn't think they had any virtues or redeeming characteristics.

The first film is everything you want to say and how you want to say it. Lots of directors will do that and do it really well, but the second film is not so easy.

I think [ Lars Von Trier] is a fantastic filmmaker. No question. You've got to be ready for him. He's sharp and he's got a sharp tongue and I love that. He doesn't mind it back.

The big problem with literature is people tend to take the dialogue from the book, forgetting that everything that surrounds it is literate, therefore not knowing quite how to put that on screen.

I have lots of favourite memories but I can't say that I have a favourite film.

Very broadly speaking, you can put directors into two areas: One for whom you work, and the other with whom you work. And I prefer the latter, for obvious reasons.

I think you can get better in mathematics on a school level, but when you're talking about being a mathematician, I think that's definitely a gift of genes or whatever.

It's quite a dangerous career move to go wilfully on making films that may not find a distributor.

My mother's father drank and her mother was an unhappy, neurotic woman, and I think she has lived all her life afraid of anyone who drinks for fear something like that might happen to her.

Anything that drags down the American economy drags the Canadian economy down with it.

It was quite tough, not many opportunities. I remember in primary school, one of my teachers said, "As for you young man, you haven't got much of a future."

It's not right to hurt or deceive someone who's already been hurt and deceived.

Thus we try to keep our heroes alive; hence we remember them.

Be serious. Life hurts. Reflect what hurts. I don't mean that you can't also be funny, or have fun, but at the end of the day, stories are about what you lose.

He also knew that rivals are best unmanned by being ignored.

A personal injustice is stronger motivation than any instinct for philanthropy.

Half my life is an act of revision; more than half the act is performed with small changes.

Life is an X-rated soap opera.

Writing is hard. I learned how to work hard from wrestling, not English courses.

Rituals are comforting; rituals combat loneliness.

Ambition robs you of your childhood. The moment you want to become an adult—in any way—something in your childhood dies.

I’m not afraid, but I’m very nervous.

… but only because exhaustion is a life-sign; it is at least a form of being human.

Whatever I write, no matter how gray or dark the subject matter, it's still going to be a comic novel.

Sell my old clothes - I'm off to heaven

He was one of those people things came easily to, but he did little to demonstrate that he deserved to be gifted.

I begin with an interest in a relationship, a situation, a character.

People are either attracted to the unseemly or disapproving of it, or both; yet we try to sound superior to the unseemly by pretending to be amused by it or indifferent to it.

The unspoken factor is love. The reason I can work so hard at my writing is that it's not work for me.

Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you-because you know how to perform them-have no choice, either

When you legislate personal belief, you're in violation of freedom of religion.

Poetry is paying attention to life when all the world seems asleep to its beauties and truths.

You can be angry and silent, but it's no use - there's no distance in the spirit - besides, my words touch you more softly than my hands.

The stories we love may not always fit neatly into a single time line, but they will always matter.

I won't patronize you by saying I know how you feel-every tragedy is different, and personal.

Greater even than the greatest discovery is to keep open the way to future discovery.

Spend as much time as you can with your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open.

Poor France, thy fine climate, rich vineyards, and the wishes of the learned avail nothing; thou art a destitute beggar, and not the powerful friend thou wert represented to me.

Firms that draw commitment from customers and staff give them a way to sign up for something that can allow them to be their best self.

Develop a capacity for things like purpose, love, wonder, courage, and grace.

Life is a great experience. Dignity is a treasure.