Provocative Ideas Quotes

A great philosophy is not one that passes final judgments and establishes ultimate truth. It is one that causes uneasiness and starts commotion.

A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before.

To find a script that works with provocative ideas is hard to find.

Peter Watts has taken the core myths of the First Contact story and shaken them to pieces. The result is a shocking and mesmerizing performance, a tour-de-force of provocative and often alarming ideas. It is a rare novel that has the potential to set science fiction on an entirely new course. Blindsight is such a book.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy to be called an idea at all.

Pushing the limits, to be thought provoking, pushing people to think and question the limits, it's not always bad for the rules if you're confident because it can even strengthen your understanding of religion in the process.

I don't set out to offend or shock, but I also don't do anything to avoid it.

The cleverly expressed opposite of any generally accepted idea is worth a fortune to somebody.

Nietzsche ... does not shy from conscious exaggeration and one-sided formulations of his thought, believing that in this way he can most clearly set in relief what in his vision and in his inquiry is different from the run-of-the-mill.

The highest compliment one can give a writer is not to say that one wholeheartedly agrees with his observations, but that he provoked - really, forced - difficult thinking about consequential matters and internal questioning of one's own assumptions, often without quick or clear resolution.

My goal in life is to make people think. If I do that, I've been a success.

And TV is not the easiest place to be dangerous or on the edge. Especially on a Saturday night.

You never make all things for all people and can't always pander to the broadest denominator. I keep an eye toward doing the themes that interest me. Do they move me? Interest me? Make me think? When I run across something that is provocative in an unsettling way, it appeals to me.

I'm always interested in are stories that challenge people.