Fredy Perlman Quotes

When I met him, he hadn't eaten for days, and lived in a rathole. But his rifle was clean and he had lots of ammunition. Whenever he heard shooting he ran towards it. If it was workers shooting at priests, state officials, capitalists, or cops, he'd empty his rifle as fast as he could fill it. But if two groups of workers ever shot at each other, he'd risk his life by standing between them and shouting, "When workers kill each other, there is no more reason to live! Kill me from both sides."
-- Luisa Nachalo ~ Sophia Nachalo

Every time we take a step we're surrounded by the ideological birds of prey who feed on our possibilities, fill themselves with concepts of our desires and reenslave us with beautiful combinations of words which seem to depict the world we failed to realize. ~ Fredy Perlman

The darkling plain is here. This is the waste land: England, America, Russia, China, Israel, France....

And we are here as victims, or as spectators, or as perpetrators of tortures, massacres, poisonings, manipulations, despoliation. ~ Fredy Perlman

Trade is very old. In the state of nature, trade is something people do to their enemies. They don't trade with kin. ~ Fredy Perlman

I couldn't only do one thing
I don't want the personal hell of oneness. ~ Itzhak Perlman

My first and most loved real novel was 'Little Women.' I identified with the Jo character even though we were opposites. Jo was very strong-minded and brave, and I was shy and kind of a wuss, everyplace but in my own home. I wanted to be Jo. She was my alter ego. I think reading that book gave me courage. ~ Rhea Perlman

For every child prodigy that you know about, at least 50 potential ones have burned out before you even heard about them. ~ Itzhak Perlman

I've never been pigeonholed and I've experienced so many different kinds of skin - what man will do and won't do, what you should do and shouldn't do. This is what's exciting about being an actor; where philosophy majors sit in classrooms or write books about human behavior, we're actually acting them out in front of cameras. ~ Ron Perlman

I like doing voiceover work. I just like it in general, because you're constantly working on a very first-instinct level. You show up, you get in front of the microphone, you look at the lines, you say the lines, and then you move on. You work on a really primal level, is what I'm saying. You don't have to shave. You don't even have to wear pants. But, uh, that wasn't your question. ~ Ron Perlman

He uses you as a weapon against himself and not merely because you did. He sits in his car at traffic lights on his way out sometimes and tries to estimate how many times he has sat here, waiting at these traffic lights on his way somewhere without you, hoping to meet someone with the capacity to consign you to an anecdote, to be eventually confused with others. He thinks of you when the woman lying next to him thinks he's asleep. ~ Elliot Perlman

You know, I don't read the blogs, or go on the internet, and I really just don't know what people are saying because ... well I guess I'm afraid to. ~ Ron Perlman

Independent film is almost nonexistent right now, because all the distributers that used to love to put out these little art films are all out of business right now, because it costs so much to open a movie. ~ Ron Perlman

I like playing interesting people, I like playing slightly twisted people. I like playing people who have large appetites who are kind of a bit larger than life. ~ Ron Perlman

The luxury of television is that you get more than one shot at who you think the guy is that you're playing. ~ Ron Perlman

The thing is that what you try to do when you play is you try to play not below a certain level. In other words, it can be a special day where it would be phenomenal, but if it's not below a certain level, that's the goal. You know, that's what you want to do. That's why you practice and so on. ~ Itzhak Perlman

I don't ever want to be comfortable with anything I'm doing. ~ Ron Perlman

1% of the population has all the money and the other 99% have nothing. ~ Ron Perlman

Literature is nothing more than the expansion of storytelling. Storytelling is obviously the impulse to chronicle something you've been through in order to give it its due, to have a catharsis. ~ Ron Perlman

I live in a bubble. ~ Ron Perlman

I feel as though my criteria are based more on how challenging the role is, it doesn't have to fit into any particular profile, is it something that I've never done before, and is it something that I feel like I can really feel challenged and therefore fully engaged in, and that's when the work gets to be the most fun. ~ Ron Perlman

Madeline, my wife, never used to wear a watch. She does now, I am told. For a long time, in a very inexact way, I had kept time for her. There was the time before we were married and the time after. There was the time before I was hospitalised and the time after. There was the time she needed me and the time after. And there is now. ~ Elliot Perlman

For people who are really talented, what you don't say becomes extremely important. You have to judge what to say and what to leave alone so you can let the talent develop. ~ Itzhak Perlman

Fuck waiting for the world to change you; you start by trying to change it. And if you are pure of heart and your intentions are good, you can't lose. Even if nothing happens, you can't lose. ~ Ron Perlman

After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over. ~ Alfred E. Perlman

You don't need to be seeing someone to be in love with her. You can have lost touch with her, she can have hurt you, even inexplicably. If you ever felt that you really knew her and that it was what you knew that you loved, and if you remember what it was you once knew, why is it so crazy to retain that love still? ~ Elliot Perlman

I realized you don't need to belong to any fuckin' edifice or ascribe to any dogma to have a relationship with God, to be a good person. You just have to be a good person. ~ Ron Perlman

Working at a job that you hate. Having a career and a life that you have no passion for. That's hell. ~ Ron Perlman

I'll be happy if I can gain even the smallest place inside the literary imagination of U.S. readers. ~ Elliot Perlman

You draw on your own childhood every time you tee it up as an actor. ~ Ron Perlman

Cinema to me is like a religion. If I was going to have a religion it would be cinema. ~ Ron Perlman

When you're younger, you tend to be reckless about trying to find out who you are and what you can do and should do. But as you get older you become more accepting of yourself, and with that comes greater contentment. ~ Elliot Perlman

I love to continue to challenge myself and put myself in situations that are slightly uncomfortable. ~ Ron Perlman

I love to work with young kids. ~ Itzhak Perlman

In my work, I'm always trying not to put barriers up between the 'good poor' and the 'bad poor.' I'm not sure my work will change things much, but at the very least, you want to make people feel that they are not alone. ~ Elliot Perlman

I always consider myself lucky that I can actually cry listening to some music. ~ Itzhak Perlman

Somebody who doesn't care if they live or die is the most dangerous human being on earth. ~ Ron Perlman

I think there are a lot of technocrats in the business who would much rather work with just wheels and gears and machinery. Those things interest them more than humanity and I wish them the best of luck. ~ Ron Perlman

This has been my vocation to make music of what remains. ~ Itzhak Perlman

I'm fully aware that things that resonate and become real hits are the exception to the rule, so much so that I've wired myself for failure. ~ Ron Perlman

I'll walk through fire to do what I do because the movie business, when it's right, is the coolest art form ever invented. ~ Ron Perlman

Combine a left-leaning upbringing with a family with direct experience of the Holocaust and someone with aspirations to write and I guess, sooner or later, that person will have a stab at writing something about the Holocaust. ~ Elliot Perlman

In difficult times, people just like to hear music. They like to be moved by what they hear. And music speaks different languages. ~ Itzhak Perlman

I'm continuing to do research into biker culture. ~ Ron Perlman

I feel that you always pay when you are a child. ~ Itzhak Perlman

I look at raising funds for The Perlman Music Program as a challenge and as a way to provide opportunities for people who care about the future of classical music. ~ Itzhak Perlman

You start talking about God and a lot of people are going to become very defensive. ~ Ron Perlman

I actually think it's harder to play vulnerability, because you're having to delve deeper into portions of your own psyche, what it is that makes you human. ~ Ron Perlman

Listen- all that she was then, all that she is now, those gestures, everything I remember but won't or can't articulate anymore, the perfect words that are somehow made imperfect when used to describe her and all that should remain unsaid about her- it is all unsupported by reason. I know that. But that enigmatic calm that attaches itself to people in the presence of reason- it's something from which I haven't been able to take comfort, not reliably, not since her. ~ Elliot Perlman

Being an insomniac only slows me down. I try not to write at night, as I'm concerned that this will affect the quality. I might have a Scotch to keep me going, but I like to be as awake and as alert as possible. ~ Elliot Perlman