Joshua Oppenheimer Quotes

The kinds of stories I want to be a part of telling are about delving into what it is to be a human being.

I'm inspired by questions I have that I try to figure out the answers to through my writing.

For me, one of the privileges of being a writer is to poke your nose around and learn about worlds you don't know.

The great thing about books is that you can end with a question mark.

I enjoy looking beyond the obvious and look at the stories happening all around me - you kind of formulate things in your mind and get excited about them.

I write novels because there is something I don't understand in reality.

Just about every science whiz can tell you how he or she took apart the TV or the radio when they were kids just to see how it worked. To see what the world was made of. Well, when I was a kid, I took apart fairy tales to see how they worked. To see what the world was made of.

Kids need stuff which is different than what their life is that they can kind of live through.

Great storytellers in the past would go to an unknown land and return to tell the stories they've found. Those were also journeys into their inner psyches and that's still true today. An actor, a writer, does that as if saying, 'Here's what I've discovered about myself and about the world I'm in. I would like to share this with you.'

Victorville gave me opportunity to go inside and explore my imagination a bit.

Reading is as much a part of life as any part, and it's life itself. And it allows us to live other lives that we might not have lived if we hadn't picked up those books.

I live for my work, apart from my family who come first. And I live to tell stories and pretend to be other people, it's something I've been doing since I was 3 years old. Maybe it's because I'm intrinsically bored with myself, and I find other people more interesting. The more different they are, the bigger the challenge.

Writing isn't necessarily about what one knows but what one wants to know.

I always love novels that open up a subject to me - like raising a window to a beautiful, mysterious world outside.

What you look for as a reader is somebody who is going to take you and say, 'C'mon. Come into the story. I'm going to show you what there is to see.' The guide who is going to tell you, 'Pay attention over there,' or, 'Do you remember that other thing? Now watch!'

The appeal of writing is primarily the investigation of mystery.

I spy with my little eye a great story.

Wherever the good stories are, I'm trying to place myself there.

What keeps me going are my learnings, which I would rather call my 'experience,' and my urge to explore.

My passion for books has changed my life.

That's why people read books. You get to have the real conversation, as opposed to the pseudo-conversations we have in everyday life.

I feel like 'Amelie' is very much an extension of me. She's a contemporary woman who sees the world through her imagination.

If I knew what the photograph was going to look like, I wouldn't bother taking it. It's the voyage of discovery that fascinates me.

If you know everything, it keeps you from writing. You don't want a story to burn you out instead of surprising you.

The beauty of reading is that it lets you travel in a way you could never know.