Nuanced Approach Quotes

You can be Michael Moore and make 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' but that's hitting people over the head, and a lot of Americans don't like to be hit over the head. I want to make films that make people walk out and say, 'Wow, I really question if this is all right.'

Movies can be effective in influencing people to think in ways they might not otherwise be exposed to. Social commentary in films is most effective when you're not aware of a soapbox. Making the point without force-feeding the audience is the most desirable approach.

I'd be wary of simple solutions to complex problems.

Some things I think are very conservative, or very liberal. I think when someone falls into one category for everything, I'm very suspicious. It doesn't make sense to me that you'd have the same solution to every issue.

The challenge was that it was harder to be subtle than strident.

I wanted to write about the Trump era, but I didn't want to write, 'Fascism sucks' or 'Trump sucks.' That doesn't get you anywhere.

Effective visions are lived in details, not broad strokes.

My experience in government is there is a whole host of unintended consequences you have to think through. I can't un-know that, I find it harder now to offer simple solutions.

This [counterterrorism] is a game of drag bunts and stolen bases, not home runs.

My mantra about everything that has to do with public policy is: identify and reject the false choice.

Life is not an on and off switch. You don't have to have a military that is either in hard combat or is in the barracks.

There will never be a right or wrong way to cook something, but there will always be a more informed way.

Simple black-and-white thinking or action is always going to be problematic.

I want to act in America's interest and stop making shallow, sweeping claims about countries we don't fully understand and hope everything will be fine in the end. I saw that happen and it didn't work.

The middle path makes me wary. . . . But in the middle of my life, I am coming to see the middle path as a walk with wisdom where conversations of complexity can be found, that the middle path is the path of movement. . . . In the right and left worlds, the stories are largely set. . . . We become missionaries for a position . . . practitioners of the missionary position. Variety is lost. Diversity is lost. Creativity is lost in our inability to make love with the world.

Portland doesn't have a 'sit-lie' ordinance like Seattle or San Francisco. Our use of high pedestrian zones is significantly more limited and nuanced, but it gives authorities the flexibility they need to address specific public safety or public health threats in congested areas, by keeping our sidewalks accessible and walkable.

The English never draw a line without blurring it.

There are no cookie-cutter solutions that you can apply from one circumstance to another. They're different. Our interests, as implicated, are different. The tools we have at our disposal are different.

Sometimes minor details can have a huge impact. If you don't devote 100 percent of your efforts to every detail, you immediately run into difficulties.

The older I get, the more I think lightness of touch is an incredibly difficult thing to do.