Errol Morris Quotes

I go around the room and ask people, 'What do you think?'

As a documentary filmmaker, I'm very respectful, and my interview style is not intrusive. I don't really have an agenda. I just go in there, I mumble something or other, I wait for them to speak, and I wait for them to stop.

If people were really trying to learn a lot and determine what is true, the would listen a lot and talk a little.

A man hears only what he understands.

We're never encouraged by the producers to ask questions in any way. The most important thing to be is authentic and to be yourself. If I feel someone has answered a question then I'll move on. If I feel it's important enough, I will pursue the question.

All I am saying is that if you want to answer a question, then we need to examine and weigh up the evidence. To me, that's not dogmatic that's just... what else would you do?

Hear Everything and judge for yourself

Every man needs a blind eye and a deaf ear, so when people applaud, you'll only hear half of it, and when people salute, you'll only see part of it. Believe only half the praise and half the criticism.

I don't care if it's politics, religion or football. I believe you have to keep opening your mind. And shut your mouth sometimes!

People hear what they want and expect to hear, not what is said.

Almost all the other fellows do not look from the facts to the theory but from the theory to the facts; they cannot get out of the network of already accepted concepts; instead, comically, they only wriggle about inside.

Of course, analysis can sometimes give more accurate results than intuition but usually it’s just a lot of work. I normally do what my intuition tells me to do. Most of the time spent thinking is just to double-check.

Can one consider controversy without falling into it?

Consider the reasons which make us certain that we are right, but not the fact that we are certain. If you are not convinced, ignore our certainty. Don't be tempted to substitute our judgment for your own.

Listening is not only about waiting, but it's also learning how better to ask questions.

Logic helps us to strip off the outward disguise of things, and to behold and judge of them in their own nature.

Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.

The better you hear a thing put, the more certain you are there's another view.

Get the facts. Ask questions and listen intently to the answers before responding.

The test of real and vigorous thinking, the thinking which ascertains truths instead of dreaming dreams, is successful application to practice.

Even when everything seems rotten you can't trust that judgment. It's the sum of all your judgments that counts.

Finding truth involves some kind of activity. As I like to point out, truth isn't handed to you on a platter. It's not something that you get at a cafeteria, where they just put it on your plate. It's a search, a quest, an investigation, a continual process of looking at and looking for evidence, trying to figure out what the evidence means.

The historian's first duties are sacrilege and the mocking of false gods. They are his indispensable instruments for establishing the truth.

Most people have ears, but few have judgment; tickle those ears, and depend upon it, you will catch their judgments, such as they are.