James Bobin Quotes

Making a film confusing does not make it intelligent.

If it's simple simple, it's boring. We try for the idea that is so simple that it will make you think and rethink.

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

If somebody writes clearly, you can pretty much tell immediately if something is shallow or deep, whereas if they write with all this duckweed on the surface, you can't tell if the stream is one inch deep or a hundred fathoms.

Truth is something which can't be told in a few words. Those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning.

Anybody can make the simple complecated. Creativity is making the complecated simple.

It is the function of creative man to perceive and to connect the seemingly unconnected.

I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.

In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.

Creativity varies inversely with the number of cooks involved in the broth.

Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius.

The lurking suspicion that something could be simplified is the world's richest source of rewarding challenges.

If you're willing to put two thoughts into a picture then you're already ahead of the game.

It's easy to say, 'I'm going to build something that already exists,' but it's difficult to clearly and succinctly describe something new.

Clever people master life; the wise illuminate it and create fresh difficulties.

A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.

The best types of problems are those that seem harder at first than when you think about it.

Life is filigree work. What is written clearly is not worth much, it's the transparency that counts.

I never want to dumb it down. If there's any simplification, it's just a simplification to make sure that the reader understands the point that the character is trying to make.

It's very hard to know what wisdom is.

The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem. We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.

I never quite know if what I do will be understood.

It's like that Simpsons joke - they're filming a cow in a movie and they go, 'OK, we'll tape a bunch of cats together to make a cow', and it's like, 'Why don't you just use a cow?'. For some reason that is novel - like, 'Oh, my guitar sounds like a piano and now if I can just get my piano to sound like my guitar'.

The essence of style is a simple way of saying something complex.