O Russell Quotes

I got a nomination for director, which means the world to me; it's just the most exciting thing for me and my family. You do the good hard work, and the rest of it is something you shouldn't get too caught up in, but when it happens - boy! I respect it. ~ David O. Russell

The endings for all my characters seem sufficiently human and messy for me to feel comfortable with them. In some ways they have only moved an inch, but sometimes an inch is a great distance. ~ David O. Russell

Christianity has been responsible for plenty of horror and death in the world, all supposedly in God's name. ~ David O. Russell

David O. Russell is probably my favorite filmmaker. He's not only a great director, but he's also a great writer. ~ Adam McKay

It's absurd that we're so quick to criticize Muslims for being fundamentalist when Christians can be just as extreme and fanatical and frightening. ~ David O. Russell

I hadn't made that movie before and when I ever met the real Joy Mangano, which happened because De Niro insisted we meet her and her father, that's what she felt like to us. She impressed us with her quiet, serene authority with herself ~ David O. Russell

I feel profoundly blessed. I feel it's a great privilege to make any motion picture. ~ David O. Russell

You can't force a movie to happen. Movies happen when they're supposed to happen. Everything happens in God's time. I really believe that. ~ David O. Russell

Nobody sits like this rock sits. You rock, rock. THe rock just is and sits. You show us how to just sit here and that's what we need. ~ David O. Russell

Unhappy endings can be as cheap as happy endings. ~ David O. Russell

That's what takes people out of the fight half the time. They get hit and half the reaction is your ego is saying, 'I cannot believe that person just lit me up - how humiliating.' ~ David O. Russell

It's easier to control people when they're afraid. ~ David O. Russell

I'm always looking for a way to surprise audiences. That's, I feel, my job as a director. I felt that Amy Adams playing a tough woman in 'The Fighter' was a surprise. People saw her as a princess. ~ David O. Russell

That's just how I see things. I think things that are the most dramatic or tragic can also look the most ridiculous and funny. That's part of being human. ~ David O. Russell

This isn't infinity. This is the suburbs. ~ David O. Russell

You should always make it like it's your last film. That's my personal belief. Every filmmaker is going to have another belief. That's the only way I know to try to make a film that might be good. You got to take it real seriously like it's your last thing. ~ David O. Russell

What do we have in life, really? If we're lucky we get to a certain age, and we have each other. We have the food we like. We have our crazy little rituals. And we have each other. ~ David O. Russell

...and even though I am practicing being kind rather than right, I can't find it in me to confort her right now... ~ David O. Russell

The Republicans just want to bankrupt the government. They think that the government should do nothing, except maybe support the military. So terrorism is perfect for them. ~ David O. Russell

The cinema that I make is a cinema about people, emotion, humanity and passion. It's not just about what they struggle through, but what they live for. That's what I love. The music they love, the people they love, the clothing, the hair and the life that they love ~ David O. Russell

'The Fighter' was about a family struggling to overcome and fighting each other sometimes, and I went back and rewrote this script which I had written for my son initially because my son has mood disorder. ~ David O. Russell

It's not easy to follow Jesus' example, and if you go to church it doesn't mean you're automatically doing it. ~ David O. Russell

I'm not ok. Don't tell anyone. ~ David O. Russell

I think Jennifer Lawrence is that inside of herself. As long as I've known her she's been both 10 years old and 50 years old. And we've watched her grow up since she walked on "Silver Linings Playbook" as a 20-year-old and had not been - "Hunger Games" had not come out. And I've watched her have to take on and deal with a great deal of attention and resources and people. ~ David O. Russell

The investigation of consciousness has come to be regarded suspiciously by most smart people and by most scientists. That's a legacy that began with the Inquisition, which considered non-Christian spiritual inquiry as blasphemous. ~ David O. Russell

I suppose what I like about Zen is that the teachers are constantly questioning your insight and challenging it, looking for sloppiness or laziness in it, and ways you can go past that. ~ David O. Russell

I think any spiritual experience that's worthwhile is not about ego and it will humble you in some way. And also, a Zen monk once said to me, 'If you're not laughing, then you're not getting it.' ~ David O. Russell

I think what makes compelling fiction or cinema is when you're basically taking the most intense moments of experience and you're creating a song or a narrative out of it. ~ David O. Russell

It's my experience that endings are never easy, and I think I'm not alone among filmmakers or writers in this. ~ David O. Russell

To be honest, I think that Republicans love terrorism. ~ David O. Russell

Gay marriage is a complete red herring to distract everyone from the economy and the war and health care and education. ~ David O. Russell

I just love real characters; they're not pretentious, and every emotion is on the surface, they're regular working people. Their likes, their dislikes, their loves, their hates, their passions; they're all right there on the surface. ~ David O. Russell

The great lesson about filmmaking is never take "no" for an answer, especially if you have a lot of passion and inspiration to do something. ~ David O. Russell

One of the things I've discovered at my age is I must have enchantment. And that was not clear to me in my earlier years. When I look at my favorite films, the Frank Capra - even Scorsese, even 'Goodfellas,' what makes that movie so remarkable is there's enchantment in their world. ~ David O. Russell

The idea that anyone would think their religious ideas make them morally superior is just preposterous. ~ David O. Russell

I had various jobs, I taught a SAT class, I was a bartender, I had a day job at an office and was making short films. I got grants from NYSCA and NEA for an idea, which later became 'Huckabees,' about a guy in a Chinese restaurant who had microphones on every table and heard every personal conversation and would write perversely personal fortunes. ~ David O. Russell

And if you can come through that and still have some connection to your joy you felt when you were a child that's a very mature kind of a joy that I find inspiring. And Jennifer Lowrence has all that in her, and I've watched her have to go through it even in the last few years. ~ David O. Russell

The closer you stay to emotional authenticity and people, character authenticity, the less you can go wrong. That's how I feel now, no matter what you're doing. ~ David O. Russell

If something - if you have a good rapport then you're friends and you're offered projects together or you discover stories together. Jennifer and I discovered this story together, and it was evident to us we would only do it with each other. ~ David O. Russell

When most people turn on their TVs, they don't expect a frank discussion of philosophical ideas in their practical context. Or any context. ~ David O. Russell

That's the most beautiful thing that I like about boxing: you can take a punch. The biggest thing about taking a punch is your ego reacts and there's no better spiritual lesson than trying to not pay attention to your ego's reaction. That's what takes people out of the fight half the time. ~ David O. Russell

I got put on jury duty, which is where I learned how to write. ~ David O. Russell

There's always hope. Never give up. Walk slowly and drink lots of water. It ain't a sprint. ~ David O. Russell

You know, veterans come home and they may not be bipolar, but after they've been through a war with PTSD or a head injury, their families have a handful when they come home. ~ David O. Russell

The romance is essential. I love the love. I don't love just people struggling. I love what people are struggling for. That moves me. I love watching people be loving, and I find it enchanting, magical and transporting. It's one of the reasons that I go to the movies, and that's why I like putting it in movies. ~ David O. Russell

I think it [films] was my passion without it being declared like a job that I could have, or a career that I could have. ~ David O. Russell

As people, my parents,were very colorful, very talkative, passionate, they really loved each other. But that also meant heated, it meant there was a lot of drama in the house. Which is good for a filmmaker, I think. ~ David O. Russell

You know, you have Scorsese who worked with De Niro and - or DiCaprio. You have William Wyler who worked with Bette Davis. You have George Cukor who worked with Katharine Hepburn. I just - people get to be friends and then there's a - that's a - you can take risks together and each time out you take a different risk. ~ David O. Russell

The religion itself may have some great ideas, but I can't take it seriously if it's blatantly exclusionary. ~ David O. Russell

When I sit down to write, I don't think, 'OK, what is the next David O. Russell film I can write, or what is Harvey Weinstein going to want to buy?' Or even, 'What are filmgoers going to want.' I try to think, tell a good story. Just do what you do. ~ Matthew Quick

Life just happens the way it's supposed to happen. It delivers you to where it delivers you. ~ David O. Russell

Just work on your craft hard - that's your only hope of doing anything worthwhile. ~ David O. Russell

Dogmatism is the greatest of mental obstacles to human happiness. ~ Bertrand Russell

All thoughts that mold the age begin deep down within the primitive soul. ~ James Russell Lowell

Physical conditioning from regular exercise is important. And we can do so much more to keep our bodies strong. ~ Russell M. Nelson

At one time, many philosophers held that faultless "laws of thought" were somehow inherent, a priori, in the very nature of mind. This belief was twice shaken in the past century; first when Russell and his successors showed how the logic men employ can be defective, and later when Freud and Piaget started to reveal the tortuous ways in which our minds actually develop. ~ Jean Piaget

My favorite outfit is baggy black corduroy pants and a baggy T-shirt. ~ Cameron Russell

There is a big difference between an honest mistake made in a moment of spiritual weakness and a willfull decision to disobey persistently the commandments of God. Those who deliberately choose to violate God's commandments or ignore the standards of the Church, even when promising themselves and others that someday they will be strong enough to repent, are stepping into a dangerously slippery slope upon which many have lost their spiritual footing. ~ M. Russell Ballard

The characters I'm most emotionally involved with are like friends you leave behind when you move away. You don't see them regularly anymore, but you still love them and keep in touch. ~ Mary Doria Russell

my butt cheeks had frozen into two big chunks of ice. ~ Rachel Renee Russell

In a world where there were no specifically mental facts, is it not plain that there would be a complete impartiality, an evenly diffused light, not the central illumination fading away into outer darkness, which is characteristic of objects in relation to a mind? ~ Bertrand Russell

Many moral advances have taken the form of a shift in sensibilities that made an action seem more ridiculous than sinful, such as dueling, bullfighting, and jingoistic war. And many effective social critics, such as Swift, Johnson, Voltaire, Twain, Oscar Wilde, Bertrand Russell, Tom Lehrer, and George Carlin have been smart-ass comedians rather than thundering prophets. What in our psychology allows the joke to be mightier than the sword?

Humor works by confronting an audience with an incongruity, which may be resolved by switching to another frame of reference. And in that alternative frame of reference, the butt of the joke occupies a lowly or undignified status. ...

Humor with a political or moral agenda can stealthily challenge a relational model that is second nature to an audience by forcing them to see that it leads to consequences that the rest of their minds recognize as absurd. ...

According to the 18th-century writer Mary Wortley Montagu, 'Satire should, like a polished razor keen / Wound with touch that's scarcely felt or seen.' But satire is seldom polished that keenly, and the butts of a joke may be all too aware of the subversive power of humor. They may react with a rage that is stoked by the intentional insult to a sacred value, the deflation of their dignity, and a realization that laughter indicates common knowledge of both. The lethal riots in 2005 provoked by the editorial cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ( ~ Steven Pinker

The real way I became a model is I won a genetic lottery, and I became the recipient of a legacy. ~ Cameron Russell

Nothing from the summer carries more lasting allure for me than the memory of sitting with Ruth on the bank of a stream on campus, taking turns reading aloud from the books we held on our laps, while the wind wet leaves gossiping in the old trees above us and the creek rustled in its stony bed. ~ Scott Russell Sanders

The seconds of presence are where most inspiration comes. There are sunsets that promote it. ~ Russell Simmons

The Christian religion isn't an ideology, like socialism or libertarianism, tracked by self-identification. The Christian religion is a Body. A lot of people saying to a pollster that they identify as Christians hardly represents a movement. The question is, "Who goes to church?" And, congregationally speaking, Protestant liberalism is deader than Henry VIII. If adapting to the culture were the key to ecclesial success, then where are the Presbyterian Church (USA) church-planting movements, the Unitarian megachurches? ~ Russell D. Moore

Not pursuing your "own pleasure" on the Sabbath requires self-discipline. You may have to deny yourself of something you might like. If you choose to delight yourself in the Lord, you will not permit yourself to treat it as any other day. Routine and recreational activities can be done some other time. Think of this: In paying tithing, we return one-tenth of our increase to the Lord. In keeping the Sabbath holy, we reserve one day in seven as His. So it is our privilege to consecrate both money and time to Him who lends us life each day. ~ Russell M. Nelson

But more and more I think that madness is the world's natural condition and to expect anything else is madness compounded. ~ Russell Hoban

Knowledge exists, and good will exists; but both remain impotent until they possess the proper organs for making themselves heard. ~ Bertrand Russell

Since all terms that are defined are defined by means of other terms, it is clear that human knowledge must always be content to accept some terms as intelligible without definition, in order to have a starting point for its definitions ... [and] since human powers are finite, the definitions known to us must always begin somewhere, with terms undefined for the moment, though perhaps not permanently. - Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy ~ Bertrand Russell

Make your first kiss feel like a last kiss, or it might be." -- Scott Russell ~ Scott Russell

The Bible account of man's creation is that God created him perfect and upright, an earthly image of himself; that man sought out various inventions and defiled himself (Gen. 1:27; Rom. 5:12; Eccl. 7:29); that, all being sinners, the race was unable to help itself, and none could by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him (Psa. 49: 7, 15); that God in compassion and love had made provision for this; that, accordingly, the Son of God became a man, and gave man's ransom-price; that, as a reward for this sacrifice, and in order to the completion of the great work of atonement, he was highly exalted, even to the divine nature; and that in due time he will bring to pass a restitution of the race to the original perfection and to every blessing then possessed. These things are clearly taught in the Scriptures, from beginning to end, and are in direct opposition to the Evolution theory; or, rather, such 'babblings of science, falsely so called,' are in violent and irreconcilable conflict with the Word of God. ~ Charles Taze Russell

There's one thing you don't put in a trap, if you're smart, if you value your continued existance, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing you never ever put in a trap.
And what would that be sir?
Me ~ Russell T. Davies

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality. ~ Bertrand Russell

If [a man] spent his money, say, in giving parties for his friends, they (we may hope) would get pleasure, and so would all those upon whom he spent money, such as the butcher, the baker, and the bootlegger. But if he spends it (let us say) upon laying down rails for surface cars in some place where surface cars turn out not to be wanted, he has diverted a mass of labor into channels where it gives pleasure to no one. Nevertheless, when he becomes poor through failure of his investment he will be regarded as a victim of undeserved misfortune, whereas the gay spendthrift, who has spent his money philanthropically, will be despised as a fool and a frivolous person. ~ Bertrand Russell

When the evening was over Alistair Cooke shook my hand goodbye and held it firmly, saying, 'This hand you are shaking once shook the hand of Bertrand Russell.'
'Wow!' I said, duly impressed.
'No, No,' said Cooke, 'It goes further than that. Bertrand Russell knew Robert Browning. Bertrand Russell's aunt danced with Napoleon. That's how close we all are to history. Just a few handshakes away. Never forget that. ~ Stephen Fry

Only a tiny portion of music history involves a singer and a lyric. Songs in music are generally thought to be a minor form. ~ Russell Smith

Brianna! Did you take my clock again?!" I yelled. "If I'M late for school, it's all YOUR fault!" "I didn't take your clock. Miss Penelope did! She thinks you need all the BEAUTY SLEEP you can get! ~ Rachel Renee Russell

I think about everything first. I think about the scenario: the story and the characters, what I'm trying to say and I'll think about that for a couple of days until it's all locked in and then when I get to an instrument it'll just fall out. But the song's kind of all ready there in my head. ~ Graham Russell

What does one do about the dead? They live forever. ~ Dora Russell

After that [father's death] I never cried with any real conviction, nor expected much of anyone's God except indifference, nor loved deeply without fear that it would cost me dearly in pain. At the age of five I had become a skeptic and began to sense that any happiness that came my way might be the prelude to some grim cosmic joke. ~ Russell Baker

The true natural rights of men, then, are equal justice, security of labor and property, the amenities of civilized institutions, and the benefits of orderly society. ~ Russell Kirk

No man is fit to educate unless he feels each pupil an end in himself, with his own rights and his own personality, not merely a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, or a soldier in a regiment, or a citizen in a State. Reverence for human personality is the beginning of wisdom, in every social question but above all in education. ~ Bertrand Russell