Aaron Dessner Quotes

If you don't like the people, you're just doing a sketch. Which, in most cases, is comedy minus some emotional backbone.

As long as it's not an easy, outdated stereotype and it comes from an interesting or emotionally driven place, then anyone can be made fun of.

Jane Austen is at the end of the line that begins with Samuel Richardson, which takes wonder and magic out of the novel, treats not the past but the present.

Is there a sharper commentary on American culture and the world than The Simpsons?

Dickens writes such brilliant characters and stories, and his themes and social commentary are still so relevant. I think that's why he's still so loved today.

It is difficult not to write satire.

Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.

I like films to be pure cinema, but I also like them to provide a snapshot of a family, a society or a character - something that can nourish you as a human being as well as an actor.

The songs in 'Wonderland' don't have a melodic life for me - I'm not a musical person - but they have an emotional life, an emotional echo perhaps.

As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.

You can channel a lot within a comic framework, and I think 'The Guard' had a lot going on outside of the comedy, which is satisfying.

Cervantes smiled Spain's chivalry away; A single laugh demolished the right arm Of his country.

I love my funny poems, but I'd rather break your heart. And if I can do both in the same poem, that's the best.

To do art, one thing should always remember - subjects of people in misery have deep meanings.

That's why Tennessee Williams was a great writer. Poetically, dramatically, it was fantastic stuff. And with the landscape, the losers in life populating it. His short stories have got rhythm, something musical about them.

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

By definition, poetry works with qualities and dynamics that mainstream society is reluctant to face head-on. It's an interesting phenomenon that by necessity, poetry is just below the radar.

If you want to reach any kind of poignancy or meaning a lot of times, coming from comedy is the best way to get there.

Bad times for the Republic are great times for satire.

What is satire if not a marriage of civil disobedience to a laugh track, a potent brew of derision and lack of respect that acts as a nettle sting on the thin skin of the humourless?

I'm not interested in going and doing a big, action-adventure romp with nothing to say about being a human being.

Whenever a film allows you to think and feel and take it beyond the moment, I think it's achieved something. And 'Funny Games' does that.

It's an old Elizabethan idea. The fool is the only one who is allowed to make fun of the king because he is a fool. I can say whatever I want about anybody else because I'm just an idiot talking - I'm not insisting that I'm any smarter than anyone else. It's satire.

Satire doesn't effect change.

This is going to sound pretentious, but I like comedy that addresses something I find either worrisome or interesting in my life.