Vaclav Havel Quotes

But I think theatre in a repressive society is an immensely exciting event and theatre in a luxurious old, affluent old society like ours is an entertaining event.

Maybe rock 'n' roll isn't music. Maybe people just need to be reminded that the world ain't the way they think it is.

Bandwagons roll through our lives. It's up to you whether you jump on them unquestioningly or jump on them to overturn them and subvert them.

Sometimes the most positive thing you can be in a boring society is absolutely negative.

In a repressed society, artists fulfil a sense of harking back to instant gratification, or immediate expression, by doing things that function on the edge of society, or outside of what is conventionally accepted.

I know I'm not the greatest singer or dancer, but that doesn't interest me. I'm interested in being provocative and pushing people's buttons.

If you look at most mainstream filmmaking, to be honest, some of these films aren't even asking questions anymore at all.

We've always been a band that questions things.

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

That's the real power of art, I think. Not to chide but to provoke challenge. Otherwise why bother?

Comedians have to challenge the power. Comedians should be dangerous and devastating - and funny. That's the hardest part.

If I wanted to do something on stage, I wanted it to be something I could really get into and feel.

My idea about the role of artists is to get people to look at things in a way that's different than the way they normally would if they are being told how to think, what to do. I think when people receive information through art, they are more open-minded.

I went to grad school because I wanted to learn the rules so I would know how to break them. Breaking the rules is saying, 'I'm breaking in, OK? I'm breaking in your very comfortable little house over here, and I'm going to take a room.'

Embrace risk. The driving force behind our economic model at Illumination Mac Guff is designed to preserve the opportunity to take risk. Subvert the expectation of the audience. Surprise them with unexpected choices.

'Spiderwoman' was wonderful. I think that show is a very important piece of theatre.

I can't stand interpretation. I think it's one of the great scourges of the theater. I just think, 'Don't get in the way of the play.'

There are always people who are doing things that don't fit the official accounts.

I am interested in work that jumps boundaries, and that makes trouble. Part of me is comfortable with that: with being a bit of a troublemaker.

I decided to make one of the most controversial songs that I could. I want to get under people's skin.

Part of the problem with producing contemporary political theater in America today is that many theaters don't have flexibility or resources, be it hiring a lot of actors or staging a work that might be tough for some audience and board members.

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.

I make films to explore concepts and raise questions, not tell the audience what to think.

For me, filmmaking is not about making statements but about exposing human behavior so people are eager enough to start thinking on their own and make their own assumptions.

Turgenev's achievement lies in how he succeeded, in spite of himself, his country, and his time, in exempting his work from public duty. This has given it that unnameable quality that makes every sentence true, every silence trustworthy.