John Darnielle Quotes

How can you say when you're attracted to something? It's not easy to articulate my tastes.

I like any music I can feel.

You can't get someone to like something they aren't feeling. After you press play, there isn't anything you can do.

What is the use of theorizing as to wherein lies the charm that moves us?

I don't know why, it's the same reason why you like some music and you don't like others. There's something about it that you like. Ultimately I don't find it's in my best interests to try and analyze it, since it's fundamentally emotional.

It's far easier to write why something is terrible than why it's good. If you're reviewing a film and you decide "This is a movie I don't like," basically you can take every element of the film and find the obvious flaw, or argue that it seems ridiculous, or like a parody of itself, or that it's not as good as something similar that was done in a previous film. What's hard to do is describe why you like something. Because ultimately, the reason things move people is very amorphous. You can be cerebral about things you hate, but most of the things you like tend to be very emotive.

I find color schemes that I just like and that just feel right.

Liking is not always the child of beauty; but whatsoever is liked, to the liker is beautiful.

I don't believe in expertise. I don't believe that a film critic feels a film more deeply than any person who walks into a theater. I don't believe that.

It's not like I have this philosophical answer as to why I love rock.

If I don't see an emotional response to a dress, then I think something's wrong.

Music is not a sport - one is not better than the other. You just like what you like and get inspired.

I'm an emotional person. I chose films based on emotions.

I just hold out for pieces where I immediately feel an emotional connection with a part.

Like when I hear a beat, it might make you feel a way, but then it might make me feel a completely different way.

Until I was about 13, somehow I managed to assume that everyone reacted to everything just about as I did. I took it for granted that everyone shared my passion for overcast skies. It came as quite a shock when I discovered that there were actually people who preferred sunshine.

I think finales are always so hit or miss because they're so personal. When you do a finale, it's always up to the person watching it.

The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good.

What is beauty? It's what you love.

For me, life offers so many complexly appealing moments that two beautiful objects may be equally beautiful for different reasons and at different times. How can one choose?

Whatever one loves most is beautiful.

Pleasure is by no means an infallible critical guide, but it is the least fallible.

You can't tell people how to feel when they read your work. You can only hope to connect.

I must warn you that the books I like are not necessarily the ones I think are the best. I like them for various reasons not always easy to explain.

I don't care anything about reasons, but I know what I like.