Bruce Paltrow Quotes

I do want my films to have the required entertainment quotient, but I'd prefer doing films where you don't have to leave your brains behind.

I try to write for highest common denominator. I don't write for dumb people. I figure if everybody doesn't get it, that's OK. Someone bright enough will get it, and that's who I write for. It's probably not the way to make million-sellers. What can I say? I won't apologize for trying to write for smart people.

I find my readers to be very smart, and there is no reason to write dumb.

When I make movies, I have a lot of respect for my audience. I think my audience is smart. If there's a way to be entertained and get things out - real things, not stupid moral crap - that's the best.

I don't want to dumb anything down, and I think people appreciate that. Even if it's not their cup of tea.

I wasn't playing the music, the music was playing me... and once that went away, and I had the feeling I was playing music, I had to stop. The need to go onstage and get my brain flattened every night left me, and what I didn't wanna do is go onstage and perpetrate a fraud... You cannot fool an audience.

In all of my work I'm trying to create a dialogue, in which I want to provoke the recipients, stimulate them to use their own imaginations. I don't just say things recipients want to hear, flatter their egos or comfort them by agreeing with them. I have to provoke them, to take them as seriously as I take myself.

I didn't want to do a throwaway, mindless movie with fart jokes just to make 6-year-olds laugh. I want to provide my children with some substance.

My films don't have instant impact because they're dense with ideas that people have not thought about. It takes a while for the American public to wrap its head around some of the things I'm saying.

'Biutiful' is a tough film. It doesn't make concessions to the vulgarity of light entertainment. It's not the kind of film that you see every day in the Cineplex. But as an artist, it's the thing that I needed to do.

What I appreciate is acknowledging to the audience that I think they have brains.

I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator.

I don't like comedy that I think is bad comedy, where people are trying to be sick for the sake of it, where there's no intellectual point behind it. I like stuff that's got an underlying point of view.

I don't think all comedy should be mindless. Have something that's thoughtful. Maybe some things are tongue-in-cheek; maybe some things are very direct. I like that people have to think about things. That excites me. Because if you say certain things, it starts a dialogue. Even if you disagree, it's still a dialogue.

I wanted to make films that were culturally relevant in my own country, that challenged people, and that people talked about.

I don't make movies that make fun of anything.

I sometimes go to a movie and eat my popcorn and turn my brain off. I love those movies. But the movies I like to be in, for the most part, are the ones that challenge you.

Audiences are savvy. You can never go wrong assuming the best of them.

For me, the greatest thing a movie can do is rivet you while you're watching but also give you something to chew on for days and weeks after you've seen it.

I don't think I should be telling you every 10 minutes what to think. I like to leave the audience alone with the magic. I tend to trust the material, or I don't do it.

I don't want to act in a preachy movie just because that is more sensible. I don't watch that kind of cinema.

I like working with people who respect the intelligence of their audience.

I really don't think we should dismiss a book because we feel messed about intellectually. Or emotionally. That's the writer's job!

People always make this totally artificial distinction between what is commercial and what is good. They quote that maxim "Nobody ever lost money underestimating the public's taste" and I think that's very wrongheaded. I like to believe the audience is actually intelligent, because it's made up of other people like yourself.

I think my audience is smart. If there's a way to be entertained and get things out - real things, not stupid moral crap - that's the best.