Subtle Messaging Quotes

Whenever you try to preach something, people will not accept or invite it into their lives. But if it is said in a light way, people understand it better, and it is as true for films as it is for life.

I like the idea of subversively communicating with people... so that you make people see things in different ways.

Sometimes fairy stories may say best what's to be said.

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 say things, but I say them indirectly. At the same time, I try to make my images as direct as possible.

You all watched a sketch about feminism and you didn't even know it because of all the jokes. It's like when Jessica Seinfeld puts spinach in kids' brownies. Suckers!

The best kind of marketing messages are the ones that don't seem like marketing messages. Because it means that the viewers' defenses are down.

I personally feel like certain topics and certain issues aren't really being conveyed the right way in music nowadays. It's all very direct and to the point without leaving anything to the imagination.

I try to make sure that the Buddhism is more or less implicit in the music rather than explicit.

I believe comedy is a really good lens to filter serious issues through. If people are laughing, they don't necessarily realize until they stop laughing that they just took something in that's going to start a conversation.

I try to put in every one of my movies some sort of message. I don't want to overdo it, because I don't want people to get annoyed by it, but it's good to have a message.

The artist must say it without saying it.

People watch movies - and it's vague ideas, it's vague notions, but people pick up on these things, that they are supposed to think certain ways or that they're not supposed to think, basically, and they don't.

Novels and stories are sometimes very complex staging grounds to say, in fact, very simple things. Things impossible to say otherwise because they are repeated in so many exploitative contexts - adverts and TV shows and political speeches.

The power of ads rests more in the repetition of obvious exhortations than in the subtle transmission of values.

People would react to books by authors like James and Austen almost on a gut level. I think it was not so much the message, because the best authors do not have obvious messages. These authors were disturbing to my students because of their perspectives on life.

I didn't want the film to be didactic, and this is tough because if you look at the list of issues, you have immigration, the education system, you have the grieving, you have suicide. I think what saved me were two things. I tried to do everything with some level of restraint and let the spectator make up his own mind.

You don't want to bash viewers over the head with a blunt message or lecture them - they'd soon get bored with that.

You don't want to hit readers over the head like they're completely incapable of picking up on subtlety.

My job isn't to preach to people, it's to entertain them. I like letting the characters speak for themselves.

It is very easy to make clear what you want a film to say, but I did not wish to engage in overt propaganda, even for the right cause. I wanted to create an experience through the films, something where people could have the freedom of their own response to them.

I don't like to make strong statements. I want to write strong novels... I keep my deep, radical things for my novels.

That's the best way to feed the human mind. That's how Bob Marley did it. He never put it in your face. After you got the groove, you were just singing the hooks, because you thought it was cool.

Authors can only soft sell the environment. Create a wonderful story around the environment involving the characters that leaves a lasting impression on the reader's mind.

Fiction is often most powerful when the author is exploring an issue - and not writing like a know-it-all who has the perfect answer.