He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views.
Every rustic who delivers in the village alehouse his slow, infrequent sentences, may help to kill or keep alive the fatal superstitions which clog his race.
God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards.
If a philosophical writer cannot be followed, the difficulty of his subject can be placed only in mitigation of his offense, not in condonation of it. There are too many expert witnesses on the other side.
The writer must be a participant in the scene... like a film director who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work, and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least the main character.
I have 800 books of just Samuel Beckett's work, tons of his correspondence, personal letters that he wrote. I have copies of plays he used when he directed, so all of his handwritten notes are in the corners of the page.
Yes, actually ever since I saw his films and tried to write about them, Sirk's been in everything I've done. Not Sirk himself, but what I've learned from his work.
He must be independent and brave, and sure of himself and of the importance of his work, because if he isn't he will never survive the scorching blasts of derision that will probably greet his first efforts.
Every human being has a work to carry on within, duties to perform abroad, influence to exert, which are peculiarly his, and which no conscience but his own can teach.
No one wants to hear from the producer. He's the guy by the pool with a cigar in his mouth and a couple of lovelies on his arm. But when you're a director, they want to hear what you have to say about everything - the war, the world.
True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.
The ungrateful son is like a wart on his father's face; to leave it there is unsightly, to cut it off is painful.
Looking at a king's mouth one would never think he sucked his mother's breast.
After a rich man gets rich, his next ambition is to get richer.
Don't judge any man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins.
Whoever knows how to use a pen never adds his own name to the "guilty" list.
He that has no money might as well be buried in a rice tub with his mouth sewn up.
He who does not know what to do in his spare time is not a businessman.
Who is not satisfied with himself will grow; who is not sure of his own correctness will learn many things.
When the poor man sets a trap only his dog gets caught.
He who is outside the door has already a good part of his journey behind him.
