Richard Linklater Quotes

It's true that the human body is more vulnerable than the products of the human mind. We need to protect artists and journalists people to allow them to work.

Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.

Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?

In my estimation, the only thing that is more to be guarded against than bad taste is good taste.

Listen, anybody who has a film festival has the right to show what they want.

I just love movies, so suddenly, you're political about movies, and that's dark. It's just not fun when something you love becomes calculated.

I will never be a fan of any kind of political correctness: I think it's instant death to creativity.

Movies are movies, and I don't think any of them are going to hurt the moral fiber of America and all that nonsense.

Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.

Anything that exists on the human palette is, from my point of view, fair game for artists to portray. You don't have to go see it if you don't want to, so don't go.

Coming from The Disney Channel, anything I do is going to offend somehow, somewhere, somehow.

I don't know that a political climate - as long as it's still a free country - makes much difference in the film world.

When censorship is intelligent, it will stop a film before it is made. If not, it is too late.

I must say here in France I had more serenity or security as I was working because I knew I was making the film the way I wished and that the film would be seen, ultimately, which is not always the case in Iran. In Iran, you always work having in mind this worry of will I be able to carry on my project as I wish and will the audience see the film.

The most important thing about intellectual property vs. creative expression is that copyright law was created not to stifle creativity but to encourage creativity.

I have a lot of Chinese fans who buy my movies on the street and watch them, and I'm OK with it. I'm not OK with it in other places, but if the government's going to censor me, then I want the people to see it in any way they can.

Music is an artform, and I always though art was beyond censorship. I thought this was a common view. Apparently, I was wrong.

There will always be some films that the audience would like and some that they don't. But if I start becoming a slave to appreciation, I will be subjecting myself and my talent to one particular type of taste. I don't want to do that.

I will always demand the right for theatre to talk about anything and anyone. Without exception. None.

All my films were based on sensitive issues, and they were passed without any problems. I give full credit to the Censor Board for being capable enough to do their work well.

Self-censorship is the most devastating thing for an artist.

We want to be presentable and respectable, but feel like we can talk freely about what we want to sing about - we don't need to cuss to have that bad-boy attitude, I guess.

To have art suppressed is very dangerous to society.

Art is where we make a stand. If we don't make it there, freedom of expression is lost for everyone - for artists, for journalists, and for everyday people.

Art penetrates, no matter how many bans you put out.