Miguel Syjuco Quotes

I think the point of art is to be controversial in a lot of ways. It's to cause conversations, and it's to get people excited about and talking about the things that the films are about.

I don't want to sound disingenuous here - controversy is obviously good for business, especially if your business is satire. And it does amplify the discussion - in my view, a good thing.

As far as writing, it's grown because I've really grown comfortable with who I am.

I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity.

By intellectual liberty I mean the right to think and the right to think wrong.

I like people with their own opinions, and I like people who argue with me. It's very exhausting to be in a room full of people who just nod and smile.

I love a spirited debate.

I've never been a guy who has said 'OK' about stuff. That's not me. That's not my personality. If I think something's wrong, I express that.

I spend a lot of time bathing in a glow of consensus, but you have to be willing to say something to people who might not agree with you and take the consequences of what follows.

To be the kind of writer you want to be, you must first be the kind of thinker you want to be.

You can't have 'yes' people around you.

I think it's interesting to me to talk to people who don't agree with me all the time.

Debate is so much better than denial.

Debate is healthy and no one in this chamber - starting with me - has a monopoly on being right.

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.

I like to get people talking. I am a provocateur, and I do like getting on Twitter and riling people up. You know what, after a while some sane dialogue and sane conclusions come of that kind of thing.

Power runs with ideas that only the crazy would draw into doubt.

If you want to give me a good faceful for one of my political positions, I can take it.

I am something of a contrarian, I suppose. I feel less comfortable when everybody agrees with me. I say, 'I better reexamine my position!' I probably believe that the worst opinions in my court have been unanimous. Because there's nobody on the other side pointing out all the flaws.

Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

I like the idea that I'm making things that people might think and argue about.

And I've always said, 'If two people think the same thing about everything, one of them isn't necessary.' We need to be able to understand that if we're going to make real progress.

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.