Maggie Gyllenhaal Quotes

Political correctness may make for smooth edges, but it does little for the imagination and nothing for the arts. Writers work best when they are exploring at the outer limits of what is traditional, acceptable, or conventional.

Art respects the masses, by standing up to them for what they could be, rather than conforming to them in their degraded state.

Being called a 'bad citizen' is a compliment to a novelist, at least to my mind. That's exactly what we ought to do.

Most of the great works of juvenile literature are subversive in one way or another: they express ideas and emotions not generally approved of or even recognized at the time; they make fun of honored figures and piously held beliefs; and they view social pretenses with clear-eyed directness, remarking - as in Andersen's famous tale - that the emperor has no clothes.

In fiction, we are not bound by social convention, so the things that mystify and unsettle are allowed to rise to the surface.

In my work, I have always tried to push the boundaries of what fashion can do.

I have no wish to offend, but I do think that holy cows need challenging.

I want to do stories that are about the bits of cultural furniture that are sitting there that we're like, 'Oh yeah, that's been there for years! What could possibly be weird about it?' And then we're going to lift that piece of furniture and look at all the bugs scurry away.

My audience expects me to push the limits, to be politically incorrect. I do that because for me, that's the only place where the fun is, when I get to push the boundaries and make people laugh at things that they probably didn't want to laugh at.

There's a lot of ordinariness, and people tend to play to the same regressive tropes - sexism, patriarchy, unkindness to the oppressed. Comedy shouldn't fall into these traps - by its very nature comedy is supposed to be edgy and anti-establishment.

I don't think we're going to break the law in terms of what you can or can't do on TV. We're looking to do something edgy, different, and special.

We've always been a band that questions things.

Just to say 'woke' is to always be in a constant stream of consciousness where you don't feel like the wool is pulled over your eyes so much. You question your belief that everything should just be presented to you on this beautiful plate. Everything is not as it seems.

In every part of our society, rules have to be questioned and adapted.

Bohemia isn't somewhere an artist runs to escape society. It's a place where like-minded artists gather to plot the downfall of dogma and ignorance.

We're a band that's never been okay with the status quo. In a way, it's allowed us to be more open and confrontational in our music.

Whatever I'm writing has seemed to be about something I don't feel I could freely express in my everyday life, and stand-up is a really effective medium for getting people to hear exactly the things and viewpoints that they normally don't want listen to.

As artists we are here to make you uncomfortable with the complexity of your reality.

I like to do movies that provoke rather than reinforce conservative values.

A novelist should make you realize nothing is stable. If you don't believe anything with robustness, you're doing something more radical than anything else.

Creativity requires the freedom to consider 'unthinkable' alternatives, to doubt the worth of cherished practices. Every organization, every society is under the spell of assumptions so familiar that they are never questioned, least of all by those most intimately involved.

The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.

Art has an obligation to offend

Whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children, I tend to think it’s a good idea.

Wherever I see some mystique, be it virtue or family, faith or fatherland, there I must commit some indecent act.