Anthony Doerr Quotes
In my students, I'm always dispelling the notion that characters come like a light bulb over the head in cartoons. For me, it's like a shapeless big lump of clay. You just build it into something, and then you step back and go, 'That's not right,' hack it apart, put out a new arm, and say, 'Maybe this will walk around and work.'
Quotes to Explore
-
I've always been proud that my name stands for peace.
-
The loss of life will be irreplaceable.
-
I'm a Canadian. Outside Canada I carry the flag. Canadian nationalism isn't as insidious as American nationalism, though. It's good natured. It's all about maple syrup, not war.
-
I did not have a father. It was my mom who chose to be alone. She felt that she would be better off by herself with me after I was born.
-
When I was a kid in Michigan, I used to play ball with a town team on Sunday. Of course, I'd go to church first. Played the church organ, as a matter of fact.
-
A lot of people who curate in the business, and curate the art, don't really have good artistic sense. They may know commerce, but they aren't savvy enough to know how to balance commerce and art, you know? They don't know how to satisfy both palates.
-
I studied the lives of jazz singers who would tour Europe, and... what I learned was life was big ride for them. They'd seen the dark side of humanity... but touring the world playing jazz, it was a truly carefree way of living. A great escapism, if you like.
-
In my early 20s, I didn't even know what the Groundlings was. I had no idea. But I know how to break down a script and work on the character.
-
I would literally have to go meet people so they could see I didn't have big red hair and wear high heels constantly. It was just really ingrained in people.
-
If you're a basketball player, you've got to shoot.
-
Accept it or not, every star, actor, and director wants to work on larger-than-life films.
-
I had a good guitar, and I was a young, young kid.
-
Were women meant to do everything - work and have babies?
-
Many men start being friendly with women because they are trying to seduce them. I'm not trying to seduce them. I just like hanging out with them.
-
As society diversifies, the number of people who read literature is decreasing. It will be difficult for readers to digest my ideas through literature.
-
If you go to Africa and you're white, you're probably not going to get that much work either. But the fact is that there is a longer history of black integration in the U.S. I don't have any resentment about this: I did the maths, calculated it against my ambition and decided to leave England.
-
No matter where you are from, no matter what your background is, no matter what your socioeconomic status is, every person can achieve his or her dreams.
-
Today, with computer-generated visual effects, everything is possible. So we've seen everything. If it can be imagined, it can be put on screen.
-
Practice, work hard, and give it everything you have.
-
I write everything out in longhand in one fast go. And then I throw out the first few and start over again. By the end of the first draft, the whole thing's messy and disgusting and horrible, but you really understand the foundational stuff.
-
In my students, I'm always dispelling the notion that characters come like a light bulb over the head in cartoons. For me, it's like a shapeless big lump of clay. You just build it into something, and then you step back and go, 'That's not right,' hack it apart, put out a new arm, and say, 'Maybe this will walk around and work.'
