Steven Moffat Quotes

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

Nowadays, you cannot tell your kids what to do. In fact, you have to listen to them. As a parent, give them great education and values and they will decide what to do in life.

Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.

I was hired by the 'Tom Joyner Morning Show' to do commentary that makes people think. I want my audience to feel like they are learning and not being pandered to.

I don't underestimate audiences' intelligence. Audiences are much brighter than media gives them credit for. When people went to a movie once a week in the 1930s and that was their only exposure to media, you were required to do a different grammar.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

I'm an owner that tends to absolutely be supportive of a coach and his vision if it's a real sharp and smart vision. I really believe in that.

I think intelligence basically can be in a way defined by the possibility of having two opposite ideas living together and at the same time functioning. That's why I think a smart script has two things living in the same place, and they're absolutely contradictory.

Let us agree here today to adopt among ourselves a simple and unwritten rule. We will not rise to criticize someone else's idea unless we are prepared to offer an alternative idea of our own.

An intelligent person is never afraid or ashamed to find errors in his understanding of things.

I don't believe in condescending to children. I don't change any writing technique.

While having a profound impact on the development of values is surely an important job of a good parent, force-feeding opinions to them is not.

Sometimes I like to list the strongest arguments I can find to support a point of view I think is wrong. When I have them before me, I am up against a real opponent rather than a hypothetical one that is an easy target for me to hit.

College gave me validation: I gained a lot of confidence, just from once or twice saying something in class and the professor saying, 'Great idea.' That experience has certainly helped me say to a director, 'Actually, I think my idea is at least worth talking about.'

When you don't talk down to your audience, then they can grow with you.

I realized there are no lobbyists for critical thinking, and I realized there are no lobbyists for bravery.

I never let anyone lose their self-respect and make them wait in my office, or hurt them with my words, thoughts or actions. I give my e-mail address to anyone who seeks me out. I ask them to send me their work, and if I like it, I give them an opportunity.

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

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. That's what you have to do: you have to be confident in your potential and aware of your inexperience.

You don't have to sugar coat things for kids. If you make something for them with intelligence they will show that intelligence in ways that will sometimes shock you.

In an effort to create a culture within my classroom where students feel safe sharing the intimacies of their own silences, I have four core principles posted on the board that sits in the front of my class, which every student signs at the beginning of the year: read critically, write consciously, speak clearly, tell your truth.

One of the worst things anybody can do is assume. I think fools assume. If people have really got it together, they never assume anything. They believe, they work hard, and they prepare- but they don't assume.

Do not be influenced by the importance of the writer, and whether his learning be great or small, but let the love of pure truth draw you to read. Do not inquire, Who said this? but pay attention to what is said.

The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking.

Whenever you write, whatever you write, never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are.