“I paraphrase Aristotle: If you want to be comical, write about people to whom the audience can feel superior; if you want to be tragical, write about at least one person to whom the audience is bound to feel inferior, and no fair having human problems solved by dumb luck or heavenly intervention.” PeopleIfsWantFeelsWritingHumansPersonsProblemAudienceFairsLuckBoundsSuperiorsDumbHeavenlyInferiorsInterventionComicalParaphraseHuman ProblemsDumb Luck Author:Kurt Vonnegut
“Artistic qualities that once seemed undeniable don't seem so now. Sometimes these fluctuations are only fickleness of taste, momentary glitches in an artist's work, or an artist getting ahead of his audience (it took me ten years to catch up to Albert Oehlen). Other times, however, these problems mean there's something wrong with the art.” YearsMeanArtSometimesProblemSeemsArtistQualityAudienceTasteTenArtisticMomentaryFluctuationGlitches Author:Jerry Saltz
“So it's one of those things where we have to - our problem is pacing ourselves and still reaching a large enough number of our audience. Because we don't want to burn the audience. And we don't want to be excluding anybody.” WantStillsEnoughProblemNumbersAudienceReachingPacing Author:Jerry Garcia
“A writer who wants to be translated and published abroad faces a very difficult challenge: first of all, he must make sure that his book is cosmopolitan in the best sense of the word, that it is interesting to a global audience. Nobody is going to read about problems that they don’t care about.” WantFirstsBookProblemCareFacesDifficultChallengesInterestingAudienceDon't CareDifficult Challenges Author:Sergei Lukyanenko
“Network news accustoms audiences to assertion not argument. Over time, it reinforces the notion that politics is about visceral identification and apposition, not complex problems and their solutions. ... sound bites aren't very helpful. They can tell a voter what a candidate believes, but not why. And many issues are too complex to be freeze dried into a slogan and a smile. ... What's lost in a world in which everything's an ad? Perhaps the country that created the assembly line has simply found a more efficient way to do politics.” WorldWayBelieveCountryProblemFoundPoliticsLostSoundLinesAudienceIssuesNewsSolutionsArgumentComplexesNotionCandidatesHelpfulVotersBitesAdsEfficientSlogansAssemblyAssertionFreezeIdentificationVisceralSound BitesAssembly LineComplex Problems Author:Kathleen Hall Jamieson
“The brand is lying about something, or at least misrepresenting it. When I read a bottle of shampoo or moisturizer or other beauty product, I always perceive a dark subtext. The words haunt me. It comes across as humorous to the reader/audience, but in fact the words really do make me a little bit queasy. Nothing is as easy or natural as consumer brands want us to think - no problem is as resolvable. Your hair will fall out, eventually. Yet we do have these brands, and we line our shelves with them. There's an inherent irony.” ThinkingWantLittlesFactsProblemLyingFallEasyBitsNaturalLinesDarkAudienceProductsHairReaderLittle BitHumorousBrandsConsumersPerceiveIronyBottlesInherentShelvesNo ProblemWant UShampooSubtextBeauty Products Author:Aaron Belz
“Hollywood provides ready-made fantasies or daydreams; the problem is whether these are productive or nonproductive, whether the audience is psychologically enriched or impoverished.” MadeProblemFantasyAudienceReadyHollywoodMovieProductiveDaydreaming Author:Hortense Powdermaker
“An interesting play cannot in the nature of things mean anything but a play in which problems of conduct and character of personalimportance to the audience are raised and suggestively discussed.” MeanPlayCharacterProblemInterestingAudienceDramaRaised Author:George Bernard Shaw
“The problem of the novelist who wishes to write about a man's encounter with God is how he shall make the experience--which is both natural and supernatural--understandable, and credible, to his reader. In any age this would be a problem, but in our own, it is a well- nigh insurmountable one. Today's audience is one in which religious feeling has become, if not atrophied, at least vaporous and sentimental.” IfsMenWritingWellsFeelingsProblemWould BeAgeTodayWishNaturalReligiousAudienceReaderNovelistsEncountersSentimentalSentimentalityCredibleInsurmountable Author:Flannery O'Connor
“Not my biggest fear, but my biggest problem onstage is over-emphasizing what I do. I'm pushing too hard. You need to engage an audience. They need to be able to involve their own imaginations as well. They don't need everything thrust down their throat, and I have a tendency to do that. I always have had a tendency to do that.” NeedsWellsHardProblemAbleImaginationAudienceTendenciesPushingThroatThrustBiggest Fear Author:Nick Cave
“Up on that stage, my personality changes. I put everything behind me when I perform. My problems dont belong to my fans. I dont put a burden on my audience. I give them 100 percent of my energy.” GivingProblemEnergyBehindsAudienceFansStagePersonalityPercentBurden Author:Koko Taylor
“To televisionize any serious problem, the program directors face the task of making the message 'go down smooth' until the audience is delivered to the commercial.” ProblemFacesAudienceSeriousDirectorsMessagesProgramTasksSmooth Author:Arlie Russell Hochschild
“Musicians are affected by the audience just as much as audiences are affected by the musicians. The only problem is that often times musicians won't allow themselves to admit to that fact.” FactsProblemAudienceMusicianAffected Author:Hamid Drake
“There's a guy in the audience with a distinctive laugh. I hope that guy is miked. The only problem with having a distinctive laugh is I know exactly when that guy isn't laughing. "Oh, distinctive laugh doesn't think that joke was funny!"” ThinkingKnowsProblemHumorFunnyGuyAudienceLaughingJokesThat GuyDistinctive Author:Mitch Hedberg
“There is no "era" of simple, focused, concept-driven identity design. There is only design that grows out of understanding audiences for specific problems, and that evolves from an idea. This is an approach that does not depend on any specific time period or its technology.” DoeIdeasProblemGrowsUnderstandingSimpleTechnologyAudienceDesignIdentityDependsPeriodsApproachConceptsFocusedDrivenErasEvolveTime Periods Author:Ivan Chermayeff
“Film gives me live actors, editing, music, sound, a huge and powerful toolbox to play with. If there is a problem for me, it is that film gives me too much. There is less room for the audience to add their side of the conversation.” IfsGivingPlayProblemFilmActorsSoundSidesRoomsPowerfulAudienceToo MuchHugeConversationGive MeAddEditingToolbox Author:Dave McKean
“It's important to prepare audience for the worst in life. People come to forget their problems, and it's my job, right before I leave, to go, "Don't forget: You're going through a divorce and there's a recession." It's always good to end on a pensive note.” PeopleImportantEndsProblemJobsForgetAudienceWorstNotesDivorceRecessionsForget YouPensiveGoing Through Divorce Author:Eugene Mirman
“Nerves are always a big problem for me, which is why I loved doing American sitcoms. Because you know when you do the take in front of the audience that you're going to do it again afterwards. A minute after you finish, you just go and do it again. So, there's that sort of safety net. And then if you made a little mistake or two, they'll go pick it up, so there's nothing to worry about.” IfsKnowsLittlesMadeTwoProblemBigsMistakeWorryAudienceMinutesFrontsPicksSafetyNervesSitcomBig ProblemsSafety Net Author:John Cleese
“The problem with a lot of movies when it comes to race is that they want to be moral, and they want to make the audience feel good about something that a lot of people don't feel good about.” PeopleWantFeelsProblemRaceMoralAudienceFeel Good Author:Wesley Morris
“The balance when you're catching people up, and the craft of what we do as actors, is to try to make sure that the exposition sounds like thought and dialogue, and a plan or a problem or something that is motivationally induced, rather than just telling the audience information.” PeopleTryingProblemActorsSoundAudiencePlansInformationBalanceDialogueCraftsCatching Author:Jack Coleman
“I think it's important for me, for my crew and for the audience to bring something new to each show. I have friends who have done the same act, word for word for word, for 20 years. I have a problem with that. I think the audience should see something new in each show.” ThinkingShouldYearsImportantDoneShowsProblemAudienceSomething NewCrew Author:Carrot Top