Gus Van Sant Quotes

People love westerns worldwide. There's something fantasy-like about an individual fighting the elements. Or even bad guys and the elements. It's a simpler time. There's no organized laws and stuff.

I feel the other element of a western is the land, which is very important in this movie. I mean the land is another character in the piece, actually.

The fact is the condition of affairs in Dodge, instead of improving, as I had hoped, seems to be growing worse. I hear, every now and then, of robberies committed on innocent strangers, who have come to Kansas to seek homes. Visitors inform me that the saloons are increasing, not only in numbers, but in depravity; and that thieves, desperadoes, gamblers and criminals generally, are multiplying. It is also alleged that these lawless characters dominate in the city; that they have terrorized all the better elements of society; that they openly and defiantly flaunt their viciousness and depravity; and that they appear to think there is no power or authority that can reach or punish them.

Western democracy included individual liberty, as well as equality. The frontiersman was impatient of restraints. He knew how to preserve order, even in the absence of legal authority…. the individual was not ready to submit to complex regulations. Population was sparse, there was no multitude of jostling interests, as in older settlements, demanding an elaborate system of personal restraints. Society became atomic. There was a reproduction of the primitive idea of the personality of the law, a crime was more an offense against the victim than a violation of the law of the land.

The village I come from is the most ruthless, lawless land one can encounter.

Historically, Alaska is a place that has attracted those fed up with conventionality.

You can easily die racing to cover a bank robbery as you can in a war zone.

In the domain of cops and robbers, an interdiction serves to structure a black market and a shadow economy.

The western is the simplest form of drama - a gun, death.

America is a huge country, filled with great tracts of open land. If you're not careful, you can get lost in it - lost emotionally, mentally, spiritually.

The crime problem in New York is getting really serious. The other day the Statue of Liberty had both hands up.

I felt only as a man can feel who is roaming over the prairies of the far West, well armed, and mounted on a fleet and gallant steed.

Many of the very best law-abiding and peace-loving citizens have no confidence in the willingness of the civil officers to pursue and bring to justice that element of outlawry so largely disturbing the sense of security, and so often committing highway robbery and smaller thefts. The opinion in Tombstone and elsewhere in that part of the Territory is quite prevalent that the civil officers are quite largely in league with the leaders of this disturbing and dangerous element. Something must be done, and that right early, or very grave results will follow. If is an open disgrace to American liberty and the peace and security of her citizens, that such a slate of affairs should exist.

Bookmaking is the most menacing racket in the entire field of organized crime.

Texas is the rendezvous of absconding villainy, desperate adventure, and lawless ruffianism—the ark of safety to swindlers, gamblers, robbers and rogues of every size and degree. Its distinguishing characteristic is unmitigated depravity.

This is a business that works outside the law.

Respect for law is fading from the sensibilities of our people. Twenty times as many people in proportion to the population are lawlessly killed in the United States as in Great Britain. There are fifty times as many robberies. Life and property are relatively more unsafe than in any civilized country in the world.

The can’t collect legal taxes from illegal money.

Westerns are simple stories where there's good and there's evil and where people had a sense of space and freedom. Growing up in the city, as a kid, you've never really seen that before. It's a beautiful dream to go from concrete to big skies, dirt and horses.

When you criminalize something, only criminals can deal with it. When criminals deal with it, there's no recourse to law, so there's only recourse to violence.

I had left the James Gang, left Cleveland, and gone to Colorado because Bill Szymczyk was there, and so were a whole bunch of other people I knew.

The desert feels Irish in a way - lonely and barren.

I think Westerns are always so great for clearing out the clutter and the ambiguities, and getting right to the broad strokes of that kind of situation.

Crime and violence are a threat to the freedom and liberty people should enjoy and to our orderly way of life.

I like to be in big open spaces with high skies.