Tom Weston-Jones Quotes

I try to get closer to reality, to get close to the contradictions. The cinema world can be a real world rather than a dream world.

Works of art are like a Trojan horse. Under the surface is always some artist's deeply held philosophy on their view of the world. But on the other hand, you do not want to make it feel like medicine. You do not want to make it feel like an afternoon TV special where you're trying to hammer a message into someone's head.

Earlier films were meant only for entertainment, but now filmmakers, who are products of these times, do not compromise on real stuff. That is why storytelling has become more convincing.

One filmmaker makes films that are deep, intellectual, profound and confrontational. And the other one makes purely vacuous, escapist films. I'm not sure the one who makes escapist films is making a poorer contribution than the one who makes the deeper films.

We're not one thing, as human beings, so any character that is written uni-dimensional, that's just a shallow character with shallow writing and shallow acting.

It's disappointing to see films become pure entertainment, so that it's not an art form.

Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.

There should really not be anything gratuitous in a work of art. Sometimes what seems as if it's gratuitous may be a passage in which a character is being characterized so that the reader comes to know him or her better.

You make a film you feel is as real as possible and hope people react as though it were real.

I do not make movies to send any message, but my treatment makes my viewers think on the subject.

I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about.

I've always been inspired by Genet, Henry Miller and Hubert Selby, Jr., who taught me that you've got to tell a bigger truth in whatever you're doing, but the truth is not popular.

I wouldn't build a building if it wasn't of interest to me as a potential work of art. Why should I?

I just wanted to make a record that wasn't escapism. Like, I didn't want to write another record that was devoid of meaningful content.

I like films to have something inside, I don't mean a message, I mean something from the soul.

I've always wanted my lyrics to say something meaningful and, you know, you always want to tell a message with your art. So yes, as I continue to write music, I will write about things that are real and things that I feel aren't written about a lot.

The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art.

To do art, one thing should always remember - subjects of people in misery have deep meanings.

We made records to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records. I still feel that way. I put out a record because I think it's beautiful, not necessarily commercial.

All good performance pieces have some philosophical validity. That's the difference between mere theater and performance art.

I believe entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot.

I think a smart person today realizes that you have to be part of the art films that are done just for the sake of the art.

Art is not boosterism, it's not propaganda, and it's not spin, but that's not something that art does, and nor has it historically ever done it.

I definitely promise to always make films about issues that matter to me.

I think that's always the goal of art, is to make people ask themselves questions.