Jonathan Mostow Quotes
The place I begin is with story. If the audience doesn't care about that, then it doesn't matter how amazing the spectacle is. My central philosophy is that people go to the movies to be told a story, not to see stuff blow up.
Quotes to Explore
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It's so necessary to try and record the cultural memory of people. To set it down for generations to come. To better understand where we are headed. The problem is, a good portion of what we choose to remember is about willed forgetting. Which we all do, I believe, to protect ourselves from what is too difficult.
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If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.
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Sometimes I play cricket, and I play badminton.
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I just wanted to rollerblade at Union Square.
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The problem of telling contemporary history is that your message gets outdated.
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So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth.
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I take a certain pride in having maintained a reputation for fast copy throughout my newspaper career. Fast-breaking stories left my typewriter in a hurry. Not great literature, perhaps, but fast, and usually accurate.
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You know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night with a vivid dream? And you know that if you don't have a pencil and pad by the bed, it will be completely gone by the next morning. Sometimes it's important to wake up and stop dreaming. When a really great dream shows up, grab it.
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A cap on carbon is important because it sets a specific goal for reducing carbon emissions 80% by 2050.
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Writers have been in terrible situations and have yet managed to produce extraordinary work.
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The cultural expectation should be if there's infidelity, the marriage is more important than fidelity.
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They hate whom they fear.
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I don't want people following me around, everywhere I go, people talking to me and stuff. I don't want to be walking down the street with a bodyguard. I don't think that will be an issue playing in L.A.
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I think prom is just about enjoying yourself.
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I'm a flamboyant type of guy, a cooler version of Liberace.
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Sell a country?! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?
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It's never easy to adapt a book, especially as the author, because it's as if you're chopping off appendages. It really feels painful to decide what has to go.
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Media populism means appealing to people directly through media. A politician who can master the media can shape political affairs outside of parliament and even eliminate the mediation of parliament.
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I can write three novels in the time it takes to write one novella. I'm probably not going to go with that form again.
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I started in the restaurant business at the age of 19 as a waitress. I loved the atmosphere and the camaraderie of the restaurant business. I loved not having to go to an office. I loved making people happy.
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The practice of thrift is not outdated. We must discipline ourselves to live within our incomes even if it means going without or making do. The wise person can distinguish...between basic needs and extravagant wants. Some find budgeting extremely painful, but I promise you, it is never fatal.
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China is attempting the death-defying feat, which no one has attempted in the history of the world, which is to move a billion people out of poverty. When I speak to Chinese policy-makers, the thing that annoys them the most about Western policy-makers is that they're not given any credit for anything.
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When you're on stage performing stand-up, things only happen one time. I've done bits where I improv a joke, and people are dying. The next show, I try to repeat it, I can't do it. Because with the first audience that was our moment. It can't happen the same way again. We were all there: a certain type of people were at that show and we all got it.
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The place I begin is with story. If the audience doesn't care about that, then it doesn't matter how amazing the spectacle is. My central philosophy is that people go to the movies to be told a story, not to see stuff blow up.
