David Farr Quotes

Everyone likes fantasy to get away from everyday life, but I think 'Game of Thrones' is not like fairies and unicorns. It's very relatable to everyday life. It's not too fantastic - just a little bit.

Shakespeare is all big themes, like the most amazing love, or the most scary war.

I think all novels are contemporary. When people went to see 'Antony-Cleopatra' at the Globe in the 16th century, they were not going to get a history lesson on the Roman Empire. It was about love, sex, and also about dynastic troubles.

'Greek Street' is a very strange beast. I think of it as 'The Long Good Friday' meets 'Agamemnon.' A way of using those fantastically rich stories from Greek tragedy to take a look at our world and to explore some of the things I think about this world.

The function of the novel is the exploration of the human condition. Really, that's what it's all about.

Who of English speech, bred to the traditions of his race, does not recognize Hamlet in his 'inky cloak' at a glance? Not to know him would argue one's self untaught in the chief glories of his language.

I am not a political writer. I agree with Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell, who are social writers. I can't write in that fashion. I am not good enough for that. What I am interested in is family dramas and why we are doing bad things to each other and what our motives are.

Hamlet is the result of Shakespeare's work on Brutus.

To go straight to 'Scandal' and get to play the larger-than-life guy who has the page-long rants and gets drilled in the leg with blood flying everywhere, it was a blast. It's really been a nice counterpoint after the first season of 'The Carrie Diaries.'

A movie is about human beings, about humanity.

One of the trickiest things about 'Game of Thrones' is just seeding those first couple of episodes with that basic information that people need to know, both about the world and the ground rules of the world, and the relationships between the characters, as far as who means what to whom and why.

Politics is irrational. Politics is about human beings with their frailties and perversions and distortions or perception, who prioritise things according to their conviction.

The thirst for vengeance is a very real, even if a hideous, thing; and states may not ignore it till humanity has been raised to greater heights than any that have yet been scaled in all the long ages of struggle and ascent.

If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain and depends on a future day .. but if you refuse, you alienate people to a certainty and immediately.

The hazards of politics come not from campaigns and elections, as might be supposed, but rather from the nature of the creature that engages in politics. Ambition, love, jealousy, hate and the many emotions and reactions man is heir to frequently affect the course of nation and world more than principles or circumstances or events.

But what will not ambition and revenge descend to?

the latent causes of faction [which causes men] to vex and oppress each other.

Men of today seem to feel more acutely than ever the paradox of their condition. They know themselves to be the supreme end to which all action should be subordinated, but the exigencies of action force them to treat one another as instruments or obstacles, as means. The more widespread their mastery of the world, the more they find themselves crushed by uncontrollable forces.

Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy

Justice is inextricably linked to revenge, which is both morally right and a deeply internalized instinct as innate to man as breathing, having sex, falling in love, and making war.

Societies organized for the interplay of individual self-interest can collapse into manic tribalism, if not nihilistic violence.

'Farscape' is a fabulous vehicle for looking at ethical, moral, political, and social issues.

What I love about 'The Good Wife' is that it's not straightforward.

Literature hasn't come up with any new themes. The literature of all different times - it's still dealing with how one resolves issues of existence.

I like a movie that brings out many discussions. From my experience, every time I have done movies, they create this kind of situation. Like 'Irreversible,' 'The Passion of the Christ,' 'Malena'; it's so interesting. I like to explore the dark side of humanity. That's why I'm an actor.