Jean-Luc Godard Quotes

In terms of the characters I think are really fun to play, a lot of times it's someone in my head saying 'I know that woman.'

When I start writing a novel, I have no sense of direction, no idea, really nothing.

To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance.

Honesty allows us to live with not knowing. We do not know the full story; we do not know where we are in the story. We do not know who, ultimately, is at fault or who will carry the blame in the end.

Intelligence always carries uncertainties. That is the nature of the beast.

I love telling stories, but I also am more aware now of how complex reality is and how difficult it is to really explain what happened or how I felt. Maybe that sometimes makes me a little bit vague, because I don't want to really put my finger on anything or set it in stone.

I never think in terms of alienation; it's the others who do. Alienation means one thing to Hegel, another to Marx and yet another to Freud; so it is not possible to give a single definition, one that will exhaust the subject. It is a question bordering on philosophy, and I'm not a philosopher nor a sociologist. My business is to tell stories, to narrate with images - nothing else. If I do make films about alienation - to use that word that is so ambiguous - they are about characters, not about me.

It is not possible to know what you need to learn.

If you do a character, always make the character with a big question mark. Even if the character is very enigmatic and all over the place, make him always with a question mark, because if you turn a question mark upside down, like they do in South America in Spanish, then it becomes a hook.

I know there is a moral to this story, but I don't know what it is.

I asked the Zebra, are you black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes? And the zebra asked me, Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits? Are you noisy with quiet times? Or are you quiet with noisy times? Are you happy with some sad days? Or are you sad with some happy days? Are you neat with some sloppy ways? Or are you sloppy with some neat ways? And on and on and on and on and on and on he went. I’ll never ask a zebra about stripes...again.

The only thing I know for sure is how much I do not know.

One thing about beginning writers is that they don't really always know their own strengths and weaknesses - you might think you're bad at characterization, but that might really be because of some issue you're having with another element, which is making it hard for you to express character in a convincing way.

When or if answers are found, you can be assured those answers will lead to more questions. Is the troubling or wonderful? It depends on your view of your place in nature, your place among the stars; I suppose.

My drive is something that I don't fully understand.

The world is full of fictional characters looking for their stories

I don't feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am.

The natural world is so adaptable...So adaptable you wonder what's natural.

We may listen to our inner self-and still not know which ocean we hear roaring.

I have no way of knowing whether the events that I am about to narrate are effects or causes.

The more there is, the less I want. The more man flies to the moon, the more I want to look at a tree.

So here's something I know to be true, although it's a little corny, and I don't quite know what to do with it.

When I can't immediately define the character, and there's an element of mystery to it and still a lot to be explored, that's when I say yes.

I don't have any of the answers, son. Never did. All I can do is keep asking the questions. Keep trying to make sense of why people do what they do.

I've thought a lot about the power of empathy. In my work, it's the current that connects me and my actual pulse to a fictional character in a made up story, it allows me to feel, pretend feelings and sorrows and imagined pain.