Material Understanding Quotes

I prepare for auditions differently depending on what it is - what the material is, what the project is, who I'm reading for.

With a father who is a fabulous craftsman, I was raised with the fundamental belief that it is only when you personally work with a material with your hands, that you come to understand its true nature, its characteristics, its attributes, and I think - very importantly - its potential.

Skill in the digital age is confused with mastery of digital tools, masking the importance of understanding materials and mastering the elements of form.

Understanding the materials I work with... gives me a deeper understanding of my place. And it's helped me make sense of the changes that are happening to me as I grow older.

The things that have been most valuable to me I did not learn in school. Traditional education is based on facts and figures and passing tests - not on a comprehension of the material and its application to your life.

One of the best things I ever did was to train in a practical skill. I love computers and they've become such a part of life, especially to the world of design. But it's important to understand that they are a tool, as much as a hammer or a saw is a tool. Computers don't help you design. There needs to be more emphasis on training young designers in how to build things. A good writer needs a good vocabulary. A good designer needs to understand his materials and processes. You can't, as a successful designer, pretend to get any respect if you don't know how things are made.

When you make your first film, there is a hell of a lot to think about, and you've got to have a gut understanding of your material.

You must ascend a mountain to learn your relation to matter, and so to your own body, for it is at home there, though you are not.

Each material has its specific characteristics which we must understand if we want to use it. This is no less true of steel and concrete.

Unless we understand a certain material - metal or resin and plastic - understanding the processes that turn it from ore, for example - we can never develop and define form that's appropriate.

There is nothing in the cosmos, either in the material plane or the spiritual plane which cannot be directly cognized.