Brian Selznick Quotes

I'm constantly on the brink of tears in conversation about things that happen to people.

Some people could say, "I'd like something that's super dramatic and miserable and made me cry and made me sad forever" but that's not my taste.

Music just affects people's feelings. It brings out emotions in you and makes you happy and sad.

It's much easier to make people cry than to laugh.

She felt a stealing sense of fatigue as she walked; the sparkle had died out of her, and the taste of life was stale on her lips. She hardly knew what she had been seeking, or why the failure to find it had so blotted the light from her sky: she was only aware of a vague sense of failure, of an inner isolation deeper than the loneliness about her.

If you lose your purpose ... it's like you're broken.

People or stars Regard me sadly, I disappoint them.

I want people to FEEL something... If it's sadness, anger, horny, happiness whatever! As long as it doesn't just pass you by.

Unless your freedom turns into a creative realization, you will feel sad. Because you will see that you are free-your chains are broken, and you are no longer in prison; you are standing under the starry night, completely free. But where do you go?

It's also hard for people to contend with the difficult possibility that we are simply overadvanced fungi and bacteria hurtling through a galaxy in cold, meaningless space. But just because our existence may have arisen unintentionally and without purpose doesn't preclude meaning or purpose from emerging as a result of our interaction and collaboration. Meaning may not be a precondition for humanity as much as a by-product of it.

She was a keen observer, a precise user of language, sharp-tongued and funny. She could stir your emotions. Yes, really, that's what she was so good at - stirring people's emotions, moving you. And she knew she had this power...I only realized later. At the time, I had no idea what she was doing to me.

I want my stories to move people ... to feel some kind of reward from the writing.

I was created to fulfill a function and I failed in it. I negated my own existence.

My paintings seem to make the strongest impression on people who are, well, who are crazy.

A curious thing about atrocity stories is that they mirror, instead of the events they purport to describe, the extent of the hatred of the people that tell them. Still, you can't listen unmoved to tales of misery and murder.

She bludgeoned me with a look of such limitless compassion that I immediately began to cry.

My work disturbs people and nobody wants to be disturbed. They are not fully aware of the effect my work has on them, but they know it is disturbing.

I don't want people leaving the theater depressed after my movies. I want them angry.

Some people write to please, to soothe, to console. Others to provoke, to challenge, to exasperate and infuriate. I've always found the second approach the more pleasing.

I look like a hobo?" "Worse," he said. "Like a sad hobo clown." "And you like it?" "I love it." As soon as he said it, she broke into a smile. And when Eleanor smiled, something broke inside of him. Something always did.

I can't watch the news. It's extremely unsettling. Certain people can be a little desensitized because of movies, and I'm totally a part of that world, so I understand. But when you're actually seeing what's happening, you can't help but be a little affected.

His lies were so exquisite I almost wept.

There have been people who represent something very symbolic and I've been freaked out interviewing them.

Architecture begins to matter when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads.

I really try to be aware of the purpose of each song. There are songs on my record that I want people to have sex to, and songs people can listen to when they're pissed off.