Joseph Conrad Quotes

I have a love/hate relationship with just about everything, but certainly with America.

It seems we are capable of immense love and loyalty, and as capable of deceit and atrocity. It's probably this shocking ambivalence that makes us unique.

Of course, we're all a mass of contradictions.

The contradictions are what make human behavior so maddening and yet so fascinating, all at the same time.

I do believe as human beings we are a great mass of contradictions.

Everything about me is a contradiction, and so is everything about everybody else. We are made out of oppositions; we live between two poles. There's a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile the poles. You just recognize them.

I'm definitely interested in exploring human contradictions. Contradictions are what make us human - it's what defines us as human beings. Contradictions are what make characters interesting, and I've been lucky to be presented with characters who have a lot of contradictions.

There's a softer and harder person in everyone, depending on the time.

Man has always been half-monster, half-dreamer.

Human beings can be awful, but they can also be tremendous.

Everything was good. But it was awful, too.

There was much to hate in this world and too much to love.

Shakespeare is all big themes, like the most amazing love, or the most scary war.

If I were God, I would just be up there scratching my head, thinking, 'What the hell am I supposed to do with this?' For everyone helping an old lady across the street, there's someone else bludgeoning a person to death. And sometimes they're the same. How can He separate us all out?

Like any friendship or marriage, familiarity breeds more contempt, and love, and everything.

Love is a strange master, and human nature is still stranger.

Life is never free of contradictions.

I'm full of contradictions.

I really like playing the bad guy. There are so many more objectives to play when you're mad or villainesque, or when there's some agenda that you have. That's drama, that's where the heart lives. I love playing the bad guy, but especially the bad guy who's still with the girl.

Love has its place, as does hate. Peace has its place, as does war. Mercy has its place, as do cruelty and revenge.

When I'm doing a drama, I wish I was doing something funny. When I'm doing something funny, I wish I was doing something more serious. I think it's just human nature.

As much as I love boxing, I hate it. And as much as I hate it, I love it.

A lot of what I was wanting to do in my work and what I have been doing has been about the unexpected... that unexpected situation of wanting to be the heroine and yet wanting to kill the heroine at the same time.

I think people have to choose between living with contradictions or painting themselves into a corner. I have a lot of contradictions.

All of these mechanisms we have for celebrating are so double-edged. So much sorrow comes out of joy.