favorite kubrick quotes

[Just Withnail]

I swear I'm innocent.

[Reelist]

This thread died way too soon, I'll never get enough of Kubrick in his own words:


I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don't want.

One of the things that gave me the most confidence in trying to make a film was seeing all the lousy films that I saw. Because I sat there and thought, Well, I don't know a goddamn thing about movies, but I know I can make a film better than that.

To make a film entirely by yourself, which initially I did, you may not have to know very much about anything else, but you must know about photography.

The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it's simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves.

Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.

I can't honestly say what led me to make any of my films. The best I can do is to say I just fell in love with the stories. Going beyond that is a bit like trying to explain why you fell in love with your wife: she's intelligent, has brown eyes, a good figure.

[O.]

The reason I hold Kubrick so highly (#1) is observed precisely in the stuff of this thread. Everything he's said and done resonates with me so specifically. His words on drugs, more specifically hallucinogens is what has kept me from using, not on a moral level, but on a pragmatic level.

[squints]

^

"Perhaps when everything is beautiful, nothing is beautiful."

yeah that's pretty great stuff.

[Reelist]

yeah, I've noticed in my friends who've dropped acid repeatedly that everything cool loses importance to them and all they wanna do is go to shitty concerts and get in touch with the Universe MAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!

[Alexandro]

The reason I hold Kubrick so highly (#1) is observed precisely in the stuff of this thread. Everything he's said and done resonates with me so specifically. His words on drugs, more specifically hallucinogens is what has kept me from using, not on a moral level, but on a pragmatic level.

Yeah but he never used drugs. His opinion on hallucinogens are not on drugs but on people who use them and become uncritical of the world around them; which is actually a good thing about them and why their effect should only last for so long. I think he was, as many of us are, against the notion that drugs somehow make you more creative or show you "the truth" about things that you normally wouldn't see. That second part, while is not a definitive, has some truth to it, as anyone who has ever used a hallucinogen can tell. Being high on a strong drug is definitely a different emotional state that sometimes opens up certain doors to the unconscious and to aesthetic appreciation. After a while that stops and you go back to normal critical thinking and behavior, at least most of us do. I think is dumb to ask for people to have sharp minds when they're on acid or something alike, that's what the substance does to you, perhaps you have a strong clarity moment while on mushrooms that will have a lasting impact, but smart people always come back to reality and make sense of the whole thing. That some people use drugs to liberate their dumber side is just a reflection of their personalities, not of the substances themselves.

 

[Jeremy Blackman]

I guess I'm not that passionate about this issue anymore, because really people can do whatever they want... but I've always thought of the concept of opening your mind through drugs to be a lazy shortcut that's destined to yield inferior (chemically-induced) results.

And I've always seen the concept of attempting to reach spiritual enlightenment through drugs as especially silly/insulting.

So much crap has been produced by people on drugs... utter crap. There's also the question of correlation vs. causation. Many people who've created innovative things have also tended to be curious enough that they'd also try drugs, especially when there was an actual thriving drug culture.

I've often made something or written something and people have said (jokingly of course) "what were you on when you made that?" or something to that effect. This deeply annoys me, this phenomenon of assuming people have to be on drugs or have to have experimented with drugs to create something "out there" or experimental or whatever.

[O.]

Indeed, it bothers me too. I can become a pretty outrageous person, create something absurd and so on, and people will frequently ask me what substances I've taken. It's insulting.

[Alexandro]

I guess I'm not that passionate about this issue anymore, because really people can do whatever they want... but I've always thought of the concept of opening your mind through drugs to be a lazy shortcut that's destined to yield inferior (chemically-induced) results.

And I've always seen the concept of attempting to reach spiritual enlightenment through drugs as especially silly/insulting.

So much crap has been produced by people on drugs... utter crap. There's also the question of correlation vs. causation. Many people who've created innovative things have also tended to be curious enough that they'd also try drugs, especially when there was an actual thriving drug culture.

I've often made something or written something and people have said (jokingly of course) "what were you on when you made that?" or something to that effect. This deeply annoys me, this phenomenon of assuming people have to be on drugs or have to have experimented with drugs to create something "out there" or experimental or whatever.

That doesn't bother me at all. If it's a joke it's a joke, and if it's not you're probably talking with someone who clearly has never worked in a creative enterprise or tried drugs, so they don't get it anyway.

I had a life changing "spiritual enlightenment" experience while on drugs once. I wasn't attempting to have it, I was just having fun, yet something happened. It was truly mind blowing, and almost 10 years later, I consider it one of the most important experiences of my life. Even one day after it happened I knew this, but I also knew that the drug alone wasn't the cause for it. It was something within me that exploded at that precise moment with that "shortcut". Since then I never pass judgement on people who make claims like that. But I do get exasperated with people who give drugs the whole credit, because to me is the same as people who give drugs the whole blame when they're addicts or do stupid/dangerous things while high. Leaving the person out of the equation doesn't make any sense.

The same goes for the art producing thing. So much crap has been produced by people on drugs, and off drugs. Should we blame their sober state for that? Wouldn't it be stupid for sober people to claim they did amazing creative work because they were sober?

[O.]

I feel that generally, people who are sober make more beautiful things than those creating under an influence -- while both produce their fair share of shit, those possessed by a substance can fall victim far more.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Even those who experiment with drugs for creative purposes usually do the actual creating while sober. Animal Collective is a recent example... although I think most of their music is still too drugged-out.

[Alexandro]

write while drunk. edit sober.

-- ernest hemingway.