John Hillcoat Quotes

Well, the thing about great fictional characters from literature, and the reason that they're constantly turned into characters in movies, is that they completely speak to what makes people human.

I'm not interested in a character's goodness. I'm interested in what makes them human.

'Ida' doesn't set out to explain history. That's not what it's about. The story is focused on very concrete and complex characters who are full of humanity with all its paradoxes. They're not pawns used to illustrate some version of history or an ideology.

In a non-supernatural universe, there's just character, and it's humanity and human beings and how they relate to each other.

At the end of the day, one of the biggest misconceptions of Ghost is that it's just about the devil. It's always been about mankind and living.

I don't like characters who are either good or bad. I just don't experience that in life, so my writing hasn't evolved that way.

Some people are just born human, the rest of us, we take a lifetime to get there.

I'm gut all the way, which is why I think I'm so connected to shows like Falling Water and even The Walking Dead, which is all about the mortal consequences of our actions. Generally, we act first and realize the consequences later.

If we live in a state of constant fear, can we remain human?

Even the most sadistic and destructive man is human, as human as the saint.

As intellectual as we think we are, you still trip, we still have human foibles, sexuality, all the different things to still make you aware of your humanity.

On the other side, if Im playing a good guy, then he has some problems too. Thats what makes people interesting, in life and in fiction.

It is impossible for human beings, constituted as they are, both to fight and to have ideals.

I think everyone in the world to a large or small extent has felt rejection. And with rejection comes anger, and with anger some kind of crime in revenge for the rejection, and with the crime guilt- and there is the story of mankind.

It is the mission of art to remind man from time to time that he is human, and the time is ripe, just now, today, for such a reminder.

I think that's what I really dig about science fiction these days - we've caught up to it in a way. It's no longer about people with huge brains. Now it's really much more, as Jim Cameron says, the nature of being human. What it is to be human in society. How to retain one's humanity in society.

I always ask myself one question: what is human? What does it mean to be human? Maybe people will consider my new films brutal again. But this violence is just a reflection of what they really are, of what is in each one of us to certain degree.

People don't want other people to be people.

I think, at the end of the day, the real antagonist is the brokenness of humanity.

I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.

Villains are not fun for me to play, as such. But caricature-ish, intense behaviors that are based on real human traits are interesting. That makes an interesting story.

I think people enjoy "The Lobster" because people respond to original things, but I think they only respond to original things if they connect to some truths within us.

Maybe you could even think 100,000 people are inside each human being. And you drop a novel on that person, and a certain number of those sub-people come alive or get reenergized for some finite time.

Until a character becomes a personality it cannot be believed. Without personality, the character may do funny or interesting things, but unless people are able to identify themselves with the character, its actions will seem unreal. And without personality, a story cannot ring true to the audience.

The novel is a big space, and a lot can happen. Just think about the parts of your life. How do we account for our own contradictions? The only way to understand them is to let them exist, as truths that indicate something about character. People are built of elements that don't fit together - and the conflict of that is their essential drive.