James Bobin Quotes

The choreographer and the dancer must remember
that they reach the audience through the eye.
It's the illusion created which convinces the audience,
much as it is with the work of a magician.

We're all puppets, Laurie. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings.

I'm not real. I'm theatre.

Actors and magicians are both performers, and they represent things that are not necessarily who they are.

We're actors. We're the opposite of people.

Film and theater are about misdirection and making the audience see something. I find it interesting. One of the things we do in 'True Blood' is shoot all of our stunts in camera. Instead of doing some kind of visual effect, we try to make it happen.

You have to remember we're just performers, that we seldom have any kind of grasp on real life.

An actor is someone who pretends to be somebody else. A movie star is somebody who pretends that somebody else is them.

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

I've seen people who stink, but the film editor shows them just where they didn't stink. But if you're empty and manipulative on stage, it's clear.

To be in front of an audience and pretending, and to lie, this is the principle of acting.

But optics sharp it needs, I ween, To see what is not to be seen.

You know what's a great way of tricking people into thinking you're a genius? Write a show about geniuses!

Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.

What we want is not freedom but its appearances.

Being the frontperson is great because you're running the show.

People started to ask me, 'Do you really play guitar?' They thought it was a prop. It was just interesting, because of all the imaging stuff.

One time, it was really funny, I was going on stage... and they were like, 'Oh, we didn't mic the puppet! Mic the puppet!' So, that's how I know that sometimes I do a very good job, because they think that the puppet is actually, like, real.

Real talent is mixing realism with bluff. Every great artist I really respect has a certain amount of bluff; sooner or later you have to be a conjurer, and conjure images.

When human beings say they have power, it always makes me laugh a little bit.

Not seeing is half-believing.

Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are.

The film is the first art form capable of demonstrating how matter plays tricks on man.

Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.

Appearances are not reality; but they often can be a convincing alternative to it. You can control appearances most of the time, but facts are what they are. When the facts are too sharp, you can craft a cheerful version of the situation and cover the facts the way that you can covered a battered old four-slice toaster with a knitted cozy featuring images of kittens.