John Tiffany Quotes

Painting is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation.

I think most of the best new work is intended to have much more impact at once.

The arts are what humanize science and history.

The photographer, like an acrobat, must defy the laws of probability or even of possibility; at the limit, he must defy those of the interesting: the photograph becomes surprising when we do not know why it has been taken.

There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.

A work of art rests its merits in traditional qualities. It may constitute a remarkable feat in craftsmanship; it may be a searching study of psychological states; it may be a nostalgic glance backward; it may be any one of an infinite number of concepts, none of which may have any possible bearing upon its degree of newness.

There is nothing new in art except talent.

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

I think it's important for me, for my crew and for the audience to bring something new to each show. I have friends who have done the same act, word for word for word, for 20 years. I have a problem with that. I think the audience should see something new in each show.

I'd rather play here in this small bar and just do a good show. Because it's fun and there's no expectations, it's encouragement to be different, do something new.

Make something new, and define territory that's never been. I fall in love with shows because I've never see that before. I fall in love with new vocabularies.

Reading the play at home, however fulfilling, can never be the vivacious experience that Shakespeare intended.

Art revolves around creating something that isn't there.

I never tried to revolutionise photography; I just do what I do and keep my fingers crossed that people will like it.

Ultimately, with every film I'd done before, there was a reference. They have their own uniqueness, but there was always a precedent.

Never try to make the same record twice, even when people are screaming for the same sound.

He was the first to conceive of movies as an art form. His belief was that if the traditional art form would not find room for him, then he would make an art form of his own.

Even if I play a similar role to one I've played before, I will never play it the same, I'll always try to do something different with it.

In art, theories are as useful as a doctor's prescription; one must be sick to believe them.

Theater is dangerously open to repetition. It's exciting when you hit on a new way.

For me, what is most important is the element of surprise. If I can surprise you with every film of mine, that is exactly what I am trying to do.

If you're not observing the world around you, in some sense you're not really an artist because then that means you're just replicating other people's stuff, or, I don't even know what you're doing.

The interesting thing about doing a play is to find a way to make it fresh and do it as though you were doing it for the first time.

What I want to give in the theatre is beauty, that's what I want to give.

I want to give the audience the whole package, and for me, the whole package is to give them something fresh as well. It's not as much fun resting on your laurels.