Nicholas Meyer Quotes

Leo Tolstoy said the purpose of art is to teach you to love life. And that's what I want.

Nicholas Meyer

• Life
• Art
• Teach

What I want any genre to do, what I want any work of art to do, is to illuminate the human condition.

Nicholas Meyer

• Human
• Genre
• Illuminate

Art and commerce are not irreconciliable, they are inextricably intertwined.

Nicholas Meyer

• Art
• Commerce
• Intertwined

A screenplay is not a finished product; a novel is. A screenplay is a blueprint for something - for a building that will most likely never be built.

Nicholas Meyer

• Building
• Novel
• Screenplay

Schools and libraries are the twin cornerstones of a civilized society. Libraries are only good if people use them, like books only exist when someone reads them.

Nicholas Meyer

• Society
• Civilized
• Libraries

I was always a filmmaker before I was anything else. If I was always anything, I was a storyteller, and it never really made much of a difference to me what medium I worked in.

Nicholas Meyer

• Filmmaker
• Storyteller
• Medium

Actors will change their face, will change their hair, will change their voice, will disappear into the role. A movie star doesn't disappear.

Nicholas Meyer

• Actor
• Disappear
• Movie Star

Audiences may be stupid, but they are never wrong.

Nicholas Meyer

• Never
• Audience
• Wrong

As a writer, you have control of the words you put on the page. But once that manuscript leaves your hand, you give control to the reader. As a director, you are limited by everything: weather, budget, and egos.

Nicholas Meyer

• Words
• Control
• Writer

The director is a bit analogous to the conductor of a symphony orchestra. It's a collaborative adventure.

Nicholas Meyer

• Director
• Conductor
• Analogous

Art doesn't just happen by accident. It is about pulling out new tricks and trying new things.

Nicholas Meyer

• Art
• New
• Tricks