“I might spend 100 pages trying to get to know the world I'm writing about: its contours, who are my main characters, what are their relationships to each other, and just trying to get a sense of what and who this book is about. Usually around that point of 100 pages, I start to feel like I'm lost, I have too much material, it's time to start making some choices. It's typically at that point that I sit down and try to make a formal outline and winnow out what's not working and what I'm most interested in, where the story seems to be going.” KnowsWorldFeelsWritingTryingBookCharacterStoriesSeemsMightChoicesLostToo MuchMaterialsPagesDown AndFormalOutlinesMain Characters Author:Michael Chabon
“I try to keep feeling what's going on and try to use the camera, the actors and the design to enhance those feelings. There's something really emotionally direct and honest about how I put the material with the images. You hope that the strength of mise-en-scene comes from an honesty towards the material. You also hire really well.” TryingWellsUseFeelingsActorsHonestHonestyDesignMaterialsSceneDirectCameras Author:Ira Sachs
“You have to get inside the people you are writing about. You have to go below the surface. And that's to a very large degree what all writers are doing - they're trying to get below the surface. Whether it's in fiction or poetry or writing history and biography. Some people make that possible because they write wonderful letters and diaries. And you have to sort of go where the material is.” PeopleWritingTryingFictionWonderfulMaterialsDegreesLettersSurfaceBiographiesDiariesBelow The SurfaceWriting History Author:David McCullough
“I don't know if people really care about my opinion on things or how I come up with things, and maybe that's an insecurity and why we're comedians in the first place, so I think with that you keep doing the material, you keep trying to be funny cause you think that's all you're wanted for.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsTryingFirstsCareWantedCausesOpinionMaterialsCome UpComedianInsecurityKeep Trying Author:Nick Thune
“Those titles, Executive Producer or actor, are unimportant. I always try to approach my role as an artist. The first thing you want to do, that you attempt to do as an artist, is to have some sort of input into the material that you are working on. That is how my process begins; I say to myself: "I want to do this kind of work or I want to do that kind of work."” WantTryingFirstsKindArtistActorsProcessRolesMaterialsApproachProducersTitlesExecutivesUnimportantInput Author:Danny Glover
“Yes, the fear of its blankness. At the same time, I kind of loved it. Mallarmé was trying to make the page a blank page. But if you're going to make the page a blank page, it's not just the absence of something, it has to become something else. It has to be material, it has to be this thing. I wanted to turn a page into a thing.” IfsTryingKindWantedTurnsMaterialsPagesAbsenceBlankBlank PagesBlankness Author:Vito Acconci
“To cover politics in Washington allows you to live in the very, very wide gap between what the actual truth is, and how people are trying to manipulate the truth. They speak in the language of spin, obsequiousness, obfuscation. The meta of politics is just this endless source of material that can shed light on the psychology of the process.” PeopleTryingLightSpeakLanguageProcessPsychologyMaterialsSourceTruth IsWideEndlessGapsShedManipulateObfuscationObsequiousness Author:Mark Leibovich
“If you have a crippling fear of public speaking, recognize that that is perfectly normal. And know that the only way to get over those nerves is to fully understand the material, the points, the policy you are trying to explain - and then practice it a little bit.” IfsKnowsWayTryingLittlesBitsPracticePolicyMaterialsNormalLittle BitNervesGet OverPublic SpeakingPerfectly NormalFear Of Public Speaking Author:Dana Perino
“The animators are fantastic though. They'll shoot their own reference material, and just go into the car park or something. And they might shoot a very funny scene, or sometimes a serious scene. But they're really just trying to work out the motion. Yet what we get treated to is hilarious video of someone running around a parking lot with a broomstick and a helmet!” TryingSometimesMightRunningCarSeriousMaterialsSceneWork OutVideoTreatedFantasticParksParkingHelmetParking LotAnimatorBroomsticksCar Parks Author:Chris Sanders
“It struck me at some point that the things I wanted to say had to be wordless. I had to renounce words in order to go deep into the practice of making materials and textures that would express what I'm trying to say more accurately.” TryingWantedOrderPracticeMaterialsTextureRenounce Author:Arca
“Novel-writing is a highly skilled and laborious trade. One does not just sit behind a screen jotting down other people's conversation. One has for one's raw material every single thing one has ever seen or heard or felt, and one has to go over that vast, smoldering rubbish-heap of experience, half stifled by fumes and dust, scraping and delving until one finds a few discarded valuables. Then one has to assemble these tarnished and dented fragments, polish them, set them in order, and try to make a coherent and significant arrangement of them.” PeopleWritingTryingDoeOrderFeltBehindsHalfNovelHeardMaterialsConversationTradeScreensSignificantDustArrangementsFragmentsPolishRubbishNovel WritingRaw MaterialsDiscardedScrapingDelving Author:Evelyn Waugh
“The crime of liberation theology was that it takes the Gospels seriously. That's unacceptable. The Gospels are radical pacifist material, if you take a look at them . . . Liberation theology, in Brazil particularly, brought the actual Gospel to peasants. They said, let's read what the Gospels say, and try to act on the principles they describe. That was the major crime that set off the Reagan wars of terror.” IfsTryingLooksSaidWarPrinciplesCrimeMaterialsMajorsTerrorTheologyRadicalLiberationThey SaidPeasantsBrazilPacifist Author:Noam Chomsky
“The goal is just to try to get better and better, and the only way that makes sense to do that is to work with the best people. Surround yourself with the best artists and learn from them, and try to sink your teeth into the best material possible.” PeopleWayTryingArtistGoalMaterialsTeethMake SenseGet BetterSurroundSurround YourselfBest Artist Author:Jon Bernthal
“I'm really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.” TryingDoeMightHappensAgeParentRealizingMoralPracticeExampleMaterialsIntellectualConsciousExploring Author:Paul Auster
“The critics try to intellectualize my material. There's no satire involved. Satire is a concept that can only be understood by adults. My stuff is straight, for people of all ages.” PeopleTryingAgeStuffMaterialsInvolvedUnderstoodConceptsAdultsCriticsSatire Author:Andy Kaufman
“So what needs to be done is to spread the idea that anxiety is inappropriate. It's sort of like we who are psychedelic have to function as sitters for society, because society is going to thrash, and resist, and think it's dying, and be deluded, and regurgitate unconscious material, and so forth and so on. And the role then, I think, for psychedelic people is to try and spread calm.” PeopleThinkingNeedsTryingIdeasDoneRolesDyingMaterialsAnxietyFunctionCalmSpreadUnconsciousPsychedelicInappropriateDeluded Author:Terence McKenna
“One of the challenges of the show has always been trying to be surprising, and that was easy to do when nobody was watching it. Now that people have started watching it, they get ahead of us. We've all started really guarding the material, just to make it fun for the audience.” PeopleTryingShowsFunEasyChallengesAudienceMaterialsSurprisingGet AheadGuarding Author:Mitchell Hurwitz
“You're always trying to look for material that is as challenging as possible, so that's why I like stuff where the characters go through the most difficult times they've ever had in their life. It makes me push myself further and learn more about myself.” TryingLooksCharacterStuffDifficultChallengesMaterialsDifficult TimesAlways Trying Author:Joel Kinnaman
“A lot of modern film scoring is about a lack of themes, so I try to find ways of using music that doesn't necessarily have thematic material in it to make the points when there is thematic material even stronger. It's cool to be able to combine old and new.” WayTryingAbleFilmModernMaterialsStrongerThemeOld And NewThematic Author:Joseph Trapanese
“But what I've also really liked about it is that it not only has Marvel set about... if they just were slavishly trying to bring the comic books to life, literally, I don't the movies would work, because it's different to see something on screen in three dimensions with actors, and they kind of, I believe, are constantly trying to find a way to absolutely respect the source material and at the same time, transform it into something that works and that you believe on screen.” IfsWayTryingBelieveKindBookDifferentThreeActorsI BelieveMaterialsSourceScreensComicDimensionsComic BookThree Dimensions Author:Clark Gregg
“I've been trying to get into the Royal Box in New York for years. They say I'm too dirty, my material is too blue. But I think Redd, the whites and blue can be a nice combination.” ThinkingTryingYearsNiceNew YorkMaterialsBlueBoxesCombinationDirtyRoyal Author:Redd Foxx
“When you are doing a lot of hard fast field work, it's a physical necessity to forget every day. You can't try to remember it in any continuity. You get so burdened if you try to do it the other way. You can't dictate to your material... We found our way in, slid in on the edges. We used our hunches. And it was hard, hard living.” IfsWayTryingHardRememberUsedFoundForgetFieldsMaterialsEdgesWorking ItContinuityHunches Author:Dorothea Lange
“I never go about a new project as if I'm trying ot redefine myself. I just like to work, and I'm excited by material I find challenging and - if it's a comedy - exceptionally funny.” IfsTryingChallengesComedyMaterialsProjectsExcitedNew Projects Author:Julia Louis-Dreyfus
“You write some material, go up on stage and try it out; go back home and throw it in the trash can. And the next day do it again.” WritingTryingHomeNextStageMaterialsNext DayTrashBack HomeTrash Cans Author:Felipe Esparza
“I did whatever it takes to do stand-up. There is an abundance of material in struggling and poverty and trying to make it. There is so much humor in that, it's unlimited.” TryingPovertyStruggleMaterialsAbundanceUnlimitedWhatever It Takes Author:Dat Phan
“If I look at my work from the beginning it is more the idea of trying to establish a kind of material that one can work with for the future, rather than making nostalgic images to record something that will later become lost.” IfsTryingLooksKindIdeasLostRecordsMaterialsNostalgic Author:Thomas Struth
“The same thing I did in 2013 is what I'm trying to do in 2014, which is continue to improve, continue to shock people. You know, I have several projects coming up between 2014 and 2015, and hopefully by 2015, I'll have another hour of stand-up material where I'll be able to go on the road and tour again.” PeopleKnowsTryingAbleHoursMaterialsGoes OnProjectsHopefullyShock Author:Kevin Hart
“I never, ever update Mark Twain. I don't modernize it. I let the audience update the material. When I go out on stage, I'm trying to make the audience believe they're looking at this guy who died 104 years ago and listening to him and saying to themselves, "Jesus, he could be talking about today." And that's the point.” TryingYearsBelieveTodayGuyJesusTalkingAudienceStageMaterialsListeningYears AgoMarkDiedThis GuyUpdates Author:Hal Holbrook
“I don't have to change anything. I think that's the secret to comedy. You want to be universal and appeal to everyone. You want to put yourself in a position that no matter what you're talking about, everyone can relate to it and understand it, because it's an experience that everyone can go through. That's what I pattern my writing material and jokes after. I'm trying to maintain a level of realness that my fans can appreciate.” ThinkingWantWritingTryingMatterLevelsSecretTalkingComedyFansPositionMaterialsJokesAppreciateUniversalNo Matter WhatPatternsRelateAppealsRealness Author:Kevin Hart
“Writers have the purity of their art and what they want to achieve with that, and that this purity is bound up with the messy material conditions of trying to make a living while doing that work.” WantTryingArtAchieveConditionsMaterialsBoundsPurityMessy Author:Chad Harbach
“When I originally wrote "Jealousy," it was more like an exercise to try to write a girl-group kind of pop song. It was really contrary to most of the material I'd ever written. I didn't pay much attention to the song after I'd recorded it. I didn't really perform it at all the last 20 years. When it came time to make the new record, I decided to make peace with the song and have fun with it.” WritingTryingYearsKindLastsSongGirlFunPayAttentionRecordsWrittenGroupsMaterialsExerciseDecidedPopsContraryHaving FunMaking PeacePop SongGirl Groups Author:Natalie Merchant
“It's just about trying to find material where I'm doing more than just being a plot device. I want to actually get to do scenes that go to interesting places and are challenging to me.” WantTryingChallengesInterestingMaterialsScenePlotDevicesJust BeingInteresting Places Author:Mary Elizabeth Winstead
“It's not like we're all animalistic people trying to become more spiritual. We're really living spirit, trying to find out how to live embodied in this nitty gritty world, these corporeal forms, in these fleeting bodies in the material world where everything's changing and we're not in control.” PeopleWorldTryingBodySpiritualFormSpiritMaterialsFleetingMaterial WorldReally LivingAnimalistic Author:Surya Das
“I think it started with both the shows and the box set from finishing White Material. I think we were also pretty desperate to get it released. We felt pretty proud of it, and it just escalated from there. We were thinking about playing some live shows, doing the soundtracks live. It was just trying to shine a little light on this 15 years of work we've done.” ThinkingTryingYearsLittlesDoneShowsLightFeltWhiteMaterialsProudShiningBoxesDesperateFinishingSoundtracks Author:Stuart A. Staples
“If you don't get a laugh I immediately think it's somebody else's fault. You can always blame the material. But when it's just yourself and songs that you've picked up because you love them and stories that you've written yourself and patter you think is really funny if that tanks, there's no one to blame it on. God knows, I try!” IfsThinkingKnowsTryingStoriesSongLaughingWrittenMaterialsBlameFaultsGod KnowsTanks Author:Jason Graae
“Mental illness is a real thing. It has real material consequences for people who suffer from it and at the time even the most biological finding reflects social context in very important ways, and so I think psychiatry is better off looking both at biology and at social context and really trying to think of the relationship between these and I think doctors and patients are better off that way.” PeopleThinkingWayTryingImportantRealSufferingSocialMaterialsFindingsConsequenceDoctorsPatientIllnessMental IllnessBiologyBetter OffPsychiatryReal ThingsDoctors And Patients Author:Jonathan Michel Metzl
“I'm trying to steal from everybody. So yeah, there's cats that I'm personally affiliated with - Carl Franklin, Paul Thomas Anderson - and others that I don't know personally but their work I'm a big admirer of, like Martin Scorsese. But I'm hoping to come up with a language that is mine, that's specific to my take on this material.” KnowsTryingBigsLanguageMinesMaterialsCatYeahCome UpStealingFranklinAdmirerScorsese Author:Don Cheadle