Jonathan Safran Foer Quotes

For myself, I haven't been content to carry on producing books that merely strain against the conventions - as I've grown older, and realised that there aren't that many books left for me to write, so I've become determined that they should be the fictive equivalent of ripping the damn corset off altogether and chucking it on the fire.

Various books revolutionised what I think about novels and showed me that they're not strict, formulaic things. 'Coming Through Slaughter' by Michael Ondaatje was one of them.

In studio films, everything has to be boxed in, everybody needs to know beforehand - this is comedy, this is sci-fi, this is drama - and what's the point of independent film if you don't get to experiment?

The goal with 'Alpha' was to run towards the cliches and then to break through them, and that doesn't change depending on the medium.

I tend to prioritize emotional realism above the known laws of time and space, and when you do that, it's inevitable that strange things happen. Which can be quite enjoyable, I think.

I don't write genre stuff in any form. I'm not interested in it. I always try to do the opposite of that.

I do not believe that I will ever write an adult novel from an animal's point of view unless someday it becomes suddenly appealing to me to make a narrator a mentally ill pet. Never say never.

You only get one album. You only get one single. You get one shot in music. But I have a million different dreams. Why can't I go out and try to achieve them all? Who are you to say I can't?

Being an artist is in part an act of rupture.

I don't shy from controversy. I'm telling stories, and I'll tell whatever story seems like it wants to be told.

Redeeming subjects from cliche is its own pleasure and privilege.

I was a little concerned that a lot of people thought I wrote Merchant Ivory movies. I also thought if I was ever going to write something strange and difficult, that was the time.

I don't care about the rules. In fact, if I don't break the rules at least 10 times in every song then I'm not doing my job properly.

I remember thinking during those times that I wanted to write in a way where there are no rules.

Allowing alternative narrative modes in popular entertainment may seem obvious, yet when you turn a pilot into the people upstairs and the main character isn't after what she wants by the top of page two, you get treated as if you've failed at writing.

I don't want to only make the movies that studios will greenlight.

I want to make movies and pieces of television and pieces of art that crack everyone's assumptions.

I'm not trying to obey the rules of radio.

When I first did 'Empire,' it was a severe break from everything I'd written up to that point, which is all very continuity-driven, super-heroic, and ethics and morals-infused. 'Empire' was a chance to break away from that.

I feel like I want to make anime that destroys the norms, something that would be strong, even if it is unconventional.

I did not want to do things the way they are usually done in Hindi cinema.

Genre hopping is something I intend to do, and I intend to do it forever and ever because I think genres are boring.

I've lost so many gigs composing commercial or television music because I can't repress my inclination to work against conventions.

Our cinema is coming of age, and people are realizing we need to tell different stories differently and in fresh manner and not just do formula stuff and serve it to the audience.

I would love to just continue playing characters that break the mold. I like making interesting decisions when playing characters, so, taking something that would seem one way and then playing it a different way.