Phil Elverum Quotes

For me, until I know that the audience really gets what I'm trying to communicate I'm not done.

Somebody once said to me, 'If you want to be understood, don't write fiction.'

If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.

I think that if people get my music, then they get what my message is.

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

Now, what we are not talking about, what you're really coming to, is what compromises one makes so that the listener understands somewhat of what you're doing, what you're trying to express.

It's technically extremely difficult to get down what you really mean, not what you think you mean, or what you think sounds good, but what's really there, what you really have to express, in words that somehow convey that meaning in an approximate way.

You have to make decisions - you know what you think. That doesn't mean the audience are aware of your decisions or what you think - the lines you're saying may have ambiguity.

Something's that written out is okay, but it's not always a clear indication of what a person means.

Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.

I wanted to communicate what I had seen, so that others could see it.

Art is a private thing, the artist makes it for himself; a comprehensible work is the product of a journalist. We need works that are strong, straight, precise, and forever beyond understanding.

In fairness, I don't think that everyone understands what I say, but I think they understand part of it and part of what the issues are... Just the same way that people like a good painting, I think people really like understanding, knowing about the world.

I love language, and I love the failure of language.

I think it's important for people to always understand what is the context is in what is being said, because that obviously determines what folks are talking about.

If you judge everything by how photographically real it looks, then you're missing out on a lot of what art is about and what communication is. There are ambiguities in life, and that should be reflected in art, cinema, and storytelling, I think.

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

If you don't know what is being said, the rest of the actor's work is wasted.

I didn't quite get 'If I Loved You.' I didn't understand what they're saying. 'Why are they saying if? Are they flirting? Is she being coy? Does she know what she's getting into?' I didn't understand this woman.

...I am much better now at ambiguities.

It's about communication, no matter how impossibly hard your art is to understand and how much of an ivory tower or high horse you get on, it's still basically communication or why are you doing it?

There were several ways of understanding her: there was what she said, and there was what she meant, and there was something between the two, that was neither.

He's very nice. He's something I replied. She considered this zipping her purse shut. Then she said Well everyone is. Everyone is Something. For some reason that stuck with me simple and yet not every since she'd said it. It was like a puzzle as well two vague words with one clear one between them.

Silence is of different kinds, and breathes different meanings.

Deciding what is being talked about is a kind of interpretive bet.