Abderrahmane Sissako Quotes
I'm the only Mauritanian filmmaker so it wouldn't make sense to make a film in France. I could shoot outside of my own country if the story was something that called for it. Africa really has to be the reason for me to make a new film.
Quotes to Explore
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My dad played guitar, and he taught me enough to play some Beatles' songs. But primarily, I was a bookworm. I loved reading and still do. My whole family does. It was part of the family culture. Accomplished literacy was a value.
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I get breakfast when everyone else is on their lunch break. I usually go to Dimes, which is a short walk from my apartment. Usually, I'll have chia pudding or an acai bowl and toast and sausage.
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The man who is intent on making the most of his opportunities is too busy to bother about luck.
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They're not shooting me for deserting the United Stated Army – thousands of guys have done that. They're shooting me for bread I stole when I was 12 years old.
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Good food and a warm kitchen are what makes a house a home. I always tried to make my home like my mother's, because Mom was magnificent at stretching a buck when it came to decorating and food. Like a true Italian, she valued beautification in every area of her life, and I try to do the same.
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Nobody wanted to believe Jack Ma.
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As long as government is allowed to collect all Internet data, the perceived exigency will drive honest civil servants to reach more broadly and deeply into our networked lives.
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Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within.
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Political theatre presents an entirely different set of problems. Sermonising has to be avoided at all cost. Objectivity is essential. The characters must be allowed to breathe their own air. The author cannot confine and constrict them to satisfy his own taste or disposition or prejudice.
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The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but does not penetrate to the bones, that is, which causes suffering but not sickness.
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I feel like my brain is more geared towards a novel than it is to a movie.
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I sing a lot, so if I have lipstick, it gets all over the microphone, so I rarely wear lipstick.
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I like other people's kids and being able to give them back when I want to.
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What I really like doing is storytelling, finding the body language that is necessary for the story. And when I'm doing it and it's working, I'm thrilled.
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Hawaii is absolutely beautiful.
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I like that there's no love as fierce as the love you feel for your family; that there's no one you feel more protective of than the very same people who can drive you crazy.
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Color television! Bah, I won't believe it until I see it in black and white.
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The family is a court of justice which never shuts down for night or day.
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We don't sign an artist to fill a void, ever. I'll never find a Taylor Swift. You can't find a new Madonna, you cannot find a Prince, a Bob Marley, a John Lennon. You won't find another Kanye West. We simply deal with people as they walk in, and we say we either love them or we don't.
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When you're someone who cares about making a difference in the world, and you have resources to do that, you have literally hundreds of choices you could make about how to do that.
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I made that first record in 2008, alongside the EP, but my label at the time waited three years to release it. They thought maybe someone bigger would buy it, but they didn't, so in the end they just released it themselves.
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If you have kids, it is the most important thing to create good times.
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I'm the only Mauritanian filmmaker so it wouldn't make sense to make a film in France. I could shoot outside of my own country if the story was something that called for it. Africa really has to be the reason for me to make a new film.
