James Wan Quotes

But I don't think there has ever been anything written on the nature of violent man as deep and as thorough as Shakespeare's Titus. I think it puts all modern movies and modern exploitations of violence to shame.

Any story about revenge is ultimately a story about forgiveness, redemption, or the futility of revenge.

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.

While 'Django Unchained' presents a morally stark universe, where people do and say evil things with no remorse, it also luxuriates in the license that such evil provides.

Revenge is not a noble sentiment, but it is a human one.

We all need to look into the dark side of our nature - that's where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we're busy denying.

Man has an innate capacity for violence, but can only justify it in the name of justice.

In the best stories, people are morally complex; they are flawed. We read them because the world is flawed, and we want to see it truthfully represented. And because it can be thrilling to be shocked and upset, and even to feel, for chilling moments, what it's like to be a bad person.

My favorite movie is 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' with Clint Eastwood, a guy who gets his family killed by the bad guys then goes on a journey of revenge, eventually discovering himself - very existential.

Let the Lord judge the criminals.

The buried code of many American films has become: If I kill you, I have won and you have lost. The instinctive ethical code of traditional Hollywood, the code by which characters like James Stewart, John Wayne and Henry Fonda lived, has been lost.

Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.

There is a dark side in all of us. And for us 'bad' people, the bad side dominates. I think there is a great sadness in villains, and I have tried to put that across. We cannot stop ourselves doing what we are doing.

I once tried to write a novel about revenge. It's the only book I didn't finish. I couldn't get into the mind of the person who was plotting vengeance.

Perhaps our imagination needs crime stories to fulfill some craving we have, as a way to assuage a darkness in ourselves.

There's something in human nature that says we need to have at least one symbolic place where chaos and dark desires can live.

'Banshee' is the story of a man who gets out of prison, tracks down his long-lost love, and tries to reclaim what was stolen from him years earlier by assuming the identity of a sheriff. I guess you could say it's an explosive action drama - sit down, strap in, and enjoy the ride!

Getting even is one reason for writing.

White shall not neutralize the black, nor good compensate bad in man, absolve him so: life's business being just the terrible choice.

That's the secret of 'True Blood' - all the creatures that roam Bon Temps become a metaphor for our insatiable lusts and inner desires. Humans craving what they can't have and those secret appetites transforming them into beasts, or even killers.

I don't believe in vengeance. Really, when all is said and done, I probably don't believe in punishment.

To me, the joy you're going to get in a 'Punisher' story is watching him punish incredibly wicked people. Now, if you can add to that an emotional content, wonderful.

It is better for a man to avenge his friend than to mourn him long..

Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil—and if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty.

Those to whom evil is done do evil in return.