Thought-Provoking Content Quotes

The best argument is an undeniably good book.

'Holy Smoke' is very brave because I don't think it's easy to watch.

Snoop is a tour de force! It’s one of the smartest and most original books I’ve come across in a long time. I devoured it and then rushed over to clean up my desk and change my iPod playlist.

I like literature that you respond to in some way. You laugh, you cry, you turn the light on - that's great, it's eliciting a response by proxy.

Read good, big important things.

For all its deranging effects, I am always grateful to Twitter for the interesting ideas it surfaces.

Read a lot. Expect something big, something exalting or deepening from a book. No book is worth reading that isn't worth re-reading.

I think what's important for myself and anyone else who wants to create a film, or art, is [to] make sure that they have something to say, that they want to share something important, express something important.

Here's the thing: I think the media underestimates the intelligence of the moviegoer. We need to be fulfilled. People want to sit down and think, and I try to make people think.

The main aim of education should be to send children out into the world with a reasonably sized anthology in their heads so that, while seated on the lavatory, waiting in doctors' surgeries, on stationary trains or watching interviews with politicians, they may have something interesting to think about.

A film is not a vehicle to accuse, or to relay a specific message. If we reduce a film to this, we lose all hope for cinema to ignite a richer conversation.

A film should be an experience. You should feel something. It should motivate you to feel something.

The worst thing you can do to a filmmaker is to walk out of his film and go, 'That was a nice movie.' But if you can cause people to walk out and then argue about the film on the sidewalk... I think we're all seeking dissension, and we love to affect an audience.

I decided to make one of the most controversial songs that I could. I want to get under people's skin.

When people leave the theatre, they should remember a line, a character, a sequence or emotion. With entertainment, I want to give meaningful cinema.

It's what I do well - I write about things that make people uncomfortable. That's probably the only thing I do better than my peers.

It is always a good time when I visit the 'Melissa Harris Perry Show' on MSNBC.

When I write I'll sometimes say things which are somewhat controversial - not because I'm seeking out controversy for its own sake, but if I don't have anything to say which is different, why am I bothering to write stuff down in the first place?

A writer who wishes to be read by posterity must not be averse to putting hints which might give rise to whole books, or ideas for learned discussions, in some corner of a chapter so that one should think he can afford to throw them away by the thousand.

I yearn for intellectual sustenance on vacation but want, of course, to avoid tedium or boredom. I want to read something that will entertain me but also help me appreciate what I am seeing.

You have to think of a new way to completely surprise people who think they're hip. I always said you could make an NC-17 movie with no sex and no violence. Now I don't know what that could possibly be, but if you could think it up, you'd have a hit.

In terms of scripted shows, I love 'Mad Men.' Cinematically, it's one of the most beautiful shows ever made. I love the subtlety of the acting and the storytelling, and I love that they don't think the audience is dumb. They make a great show, and you figure it out, and it leaves you with so many questions - it's just great.

What I look for in any book is an argument, based on evidence, that changes the way I think about something important.

I like it when a script shows you something new, and you can learn something through the journey of a film rather than being told things you already know.

Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head.