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Quote by David Mitchell

“I put it to the great man [Hitchcock], the key to fictitious terror is partition or containment: so long as the Bates Motel is sealed off from our world, we want to peer in, like at a scorpion enclosure. But a film that shows the world is a Bates Motel, well, that's... the stuff of Buchloe, dystopia, depression. We'll dip our toes in a predatory, amoral, godless unive3rse, but only our toes.”

Quote by David Mitchell

Work

Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is a complex and ambitious work that weaves together six distinct stories, each narrated by a different character. These narratives span a wide range of historical and geographical settings, from the 19th-century South Pacific to a dystopian future. The novel explores themes of identity, fate, and the interconnectedness of human lives, with each story influencing and enriching the others. Mitchell's writing is both lyrical and thought-provoking, challenging readers to consider the nature of existence and the impact of individual actions on the world. more

Author

David Mitchell
David Mitchell

David Mitchell is a British novelist known for his unique narrative techniques and profound humanistic concerns. His works often blend humor, satire, and philosophical thinking, winning him a wide audience. more

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“Staying relaxed was helping him cope with the drug induced juddering vision that could be best described as being like a Hitchcockian visual effect operated by a hyperactive squirrel that shook the whole universe closer and farther away. If you went with it, it was quite pleasant, as long as you didn't introduce any lateral movement like turning your head or the car. This caused the universe to try and slide away from underneath you. The other side effect was the constant feeling you ought to try to twist your head off, in a good way.”

“François Truffault: Mr. Hitchcock, you were born in London on August 13, 1899. The only thing I know about your childhood is the incident at the police station. Is that story true? Alfred Hitchcock: Yes, it is. I must have been about four or five years old. My father sent me to the police station with a note. The chief of police read it and locked me in a cell for five to ten minutes, saying, "This is what we do to naughty boys.”

“Actors read lines and change their facial expressions. Even then they usually need a director to tell them how to do it. It could be argued that actors are not creators or are at best secondary creators. Actors create something from something, usually a prewritten script. Whereas sculptors will create something from the raw material of the earth only using their hands and no other tools. In this regard sculptors are higher creators than painters, and painters are higher creators than musicians or writers who use symbols and tools to create. Actors however are the lowest of all creators. Perhaps that helps to explain why Hitchcock said, “Actors should be treated as cattle.”

“Here is the thing about God. He is so big and so perfect that we can't really understand Him. We can't possess Him, or apprehend Him. Moses learned this when he climbed up Mount Sinai and saw that the radiance of God's face would burn him up should he gaze upon it directly. But God so wants to be in relationship with us that He makes himself small, smaller than He really is, smaller and more humble than his infinite, perfect self, so that we might be able to get to Him, a little bit.”