Blum Quotes & Sayings

you prefer to listen rather than read (sometimes called "ristening"), try a text-to-speech app for your mobile device. — Jeff Blum

Early railway journeys took him to Ceylon, Thailand, and Burma; he would later describe his wanderlust as the "peripatetics of a Jewish prince". — VO Blum

What kind of person actually sits down and decides that no one should be allowed to end a sentence with a preposition? Not even decide what ideas you should or shouldn't talk about, but to actually make rules about what order to put your words in ... It's such an amazing kind of petty tyranny. — Jonathan Blum Kate Orman

I think horror movies are still - this can be said of all movies - but being with a group of people scared together is more and more something unusual and fun. Especially for kids who are going out less generally. — Jason Blum

We and all the others and everyone - regardless of the lives we'd led, and more than anything else, and beyond the agonies and dangers that attend every act and action of ours in this life, we all wanted to live. And that desire, if not the result, is something to think about. — Deborah Blum

Nicotine had been isolated and synthesized in the nineteenth century. In pure form, it took an ounce at most to kill the average adult. — Deborah Blum

I really like Jason Blum a lot. We're friends, and while we make wildly disparate films, we share a philosophy about low-budget filmmaking, about taking chances on young filmmaking, taking risks and obliterating our salary so we can make something cheaply and if it wins everyone wins big. — Mark Duplass

When a woman is twenty, a child deforms her; when she is thirty, he preserves her; and when forty, he makes her young again. — Leon Blum

I suppose the biggest thing I learned is that I'm in it for the right reasons. I love my job as much now as when I first began. I still feel fully invested in every audition, every job - large or small, every appearance, every meeting with every fan. — Steven Blum

Mal Blum's arrival on the indie scene gives us all hope for the future of smart music. — Melissa Ferrick

One of my biggest superstitions is to never speak about the future out loud. Let's just say I got a lot out there and I hope to keep on going. — Steven Blum

We drove through the Old Dominion University campus, where a small permanent lake has formed in the back corner of a huge parking lot. "You can't pave under water," he noted dryly, "so this obviously wasn't under water when this parking lot was paved. — Deborah Blum

I'm a believer in screening movies early, and using the movie itself to help sell the movie. If you can't do that, I feel like you shouldn't be releasing the movie. — Jason Blum

For at the beginning of the twentieth century, the nation had been struggling to find its way. Terror had raged, a second civil war had threatened to split the nation into new feuding armies, and the inequities of industrial life had brutalized too many lives. Three men who were caught up in those traumatic times, shaped by them, found with their talents, energy, and ideals a way out of it, both for themselves and for the nation. Darrow, Billy, D.W. were all flawed - egotists, temperamental, and too often morally complacent. But as their careers and lives intersected in Los Angeles at the tail end of the first decade of the twentieth century, each in his own way helped to move America into the modern world. They were individuals willing to fight for their beliefs; and the legacy of their battles, their cultural and political brawls, remains part of our national consciousness. — Howard Blum

Six years later the lead scientist, pharmacologist Kenneth Blum, published a much more subdued assessment: Unfortunately it was erroneously reported that [we] had found the "alcoholism gene," implying that there was a one-to-one relation between a gene and a specific behavior. Such misinterpretations are common - readers may recall accounts of an "obesity gene," or a "personality gene." Needless to say, there is no such thing as a specific gene for alcoholism, obesity, or a particular type of personality. ... Rather the issue at hand is to understand how certain genes and behavioral traits are connected. — Gabor Mate

I can't say that exhaustive research and reporting will guarantee a great story, but I've never been able to pull one off without it. — Deborah Blum

Torcida told me a creation story of his people and why they consider Mount Gorongosa sacred. In early times, he said, God lived with his people on the mountain. Humans were giants then and not afraid to ask God for special favors. In a drought they would say, Bring us water. The Creator, growing tired of their constant importuning, moved his residence up to heaven. Still the giant people persisted, reaching up from the mountain. At last, to put them in their place, God decided to make them small. Thereafter life became a great deal more difficult - and so it has been to this day. — Deborah Blum

Fashion is so close in revealing a person's inner feelings and everybody seems to hate to lay claim to vanity so people tend to push it away. It's really too close to the quick of the soul. — Stella Blum

I found that a lot of people ridiculed contemporary art. I decided I wanted to be involved in art everybody could understand. — Jason Blum

Other mysteries have been untangled. Redheads are known to feel pain especially acutely. This confused researchers until someone realized that the same genetic mutation that causes red hair also increases sensitivity to pain. One study found that redheaded patients require about 20 percent more general anesthesia than brunettes. — Deborah Blum

When I lived in Minneapolis in my twenties, and my mom lived there, too, I used to take her 'storm chasing' - by which I mean I'd see a pulsing blob of radar on The Weather Channel and make her drive us toward the storm. — Jenna Blum

Ships are blowing up at sea, or catching fire, factories are blowing up. Are these accidents? Are these industrial sabotage? No one really suspected a spy network. — Howard Blum

I think there's a limit. People want to be scared, but not every weekend, maybe every third weekend. — Jason Blum

consistent caretakers and allowed to interact with one another, that their survival rates improved (Blum, 2002). What better evidence is there that the brain is a social organ requiring positive human connection as much as food and water? Educational experts are guilty of a similar myopathy when they focus on curricular content and test performance rather than the social world of students and teachers. — Louis Cozolino

The past is past. And better it remain so. — Jenna Blum

But with sea levels rising along the East Coast - a natural phenomenon accelerated by climate change - scientists project that in our lifetimes what was once considered a hundred-year flood will happen every three to twenty years. — Deborah Blum

It is estimated that up to one third of police officers who face a traumatic event will develop some level of post-traumatic stress (Dowling F.G., 2006). Despite this high number of psychological casualties, law enforcement agencies nationwide fail to support and train for a psychological injury that can last far longer than the physical injuries received in combat (Blum, 2001). — Karen Rodwill Solomon

The leaders of the empire, the imperial mafia-George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, et al ... are as fanatic and as fundamentalist as Osama bin Laden. — William Blum

You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few brief minutes and then the wind blows away your footprints — Arlene Blum

I try not to put pressure on filmmakers to come up with a big scare at the beginning. I think that helps let the audience settle in and get to know the people they're about to spend 90 minutes with. Once the scarier stuff happens, it's scarier because of that. — Jason Blum

Where do you draw the line between actions carried out due to an internal need and actions that were nothing more than a slim version of one ceremony or another that help us define our emotions? — Yoav Blum

Fashion is a social agreement. the result of a consensus of a large group of people. — Stella Blum

You want people who are self-starters. — Blum, David

Why would we have evolved this way? The most probable answer is that an organism that responds quickly to fast-changing social environments will more likely survive them. That organism won't have to wait around, as it were, for better genes to evolve on the species level. Immunologists discovered something similar twenty-five years ago: adapting to new pathogens the old-fashioned way - waiting for natural selection to favor genes that create resistance to specific pathogens - would happen too slowly to counter the rapidly changing pathogen environment. Instead, the immune system uses networks of genes that can respond quickly and flexibly to new threats. — Deborah Blum

Think of your metabolic system as a network of highly specialized channels of communication. (It's like the Wi-Fi your body runs on.) Give your metabolism the right information - no spam - and the communication comes through clearly and effectively. — Esther Blum

'The Lucky One' features a young concentration camp survivor named Peter Rashkin - who's about the age my dad was when he started at CBS - working at the Oyster Bar, trying to acclimate to his new country and outrun the memories of the daily he left behind. — Jenna Blum

Occasionally I'll be a producer for hire on a larger budget movie, but with Blumhouse Pictures, we mainly focus on micro-budget, under-$5-million-dollar movies. That's what we're in business to do, and that's what we're in business to make. — Jason Blum

There was the Bennett Cocktail (gin, lime juice, bitters), the Bee's Knees (gin, honey, lemon juice), the Gin Fizz (gin, lemon juice, sugar, seltzer water), and the Southside (lemon juice, sugar syrup, mint leaves, gin, seltzer water). — Deborah Blum

I really like to work with theater actors. Theater actors tend to do lots of independent movies, and those are the actors that I like. — Jason Blum

When hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world went to the Yukon to look for gold, the original prospectors had already claimed most of it. — Howard Blum

If your brain does not receive sufficient stimulus, it might find something else to do - it daydreams, it wanders, it thinks about itself. If this goes on too long, it can affect your mind's normal functioning. Chronic boredom correlates with depression and attention deficits. — Deborah Blum

I have people in my family with bipolar disorder, and for years I've watched them struggle with the disorder's extreme moods and often devastating consequences. — Jenna Blum

I'm such a fan of nature, and being with the trees every day fills me with joy. — Scott Blum

For it is in letting go of the past that you reclaim your power. Step through the gateway now. — Ralph Blum

I really am passionate about making low-budget movies. You can try new stuff and unusual stuff, and you can break the rules. — Jason Blum

YouTube is found footage. It's here to stay, and people will always come up with new concepts that will make sense for found footage. — Jason Blum

Despite my deep unease about animal advocates working for things we don't want and asking for changes we don't believe in, I am not an "abolitionist." First, the abolition of animal slavery will no more end speciesism by itself than the abolition of American slavery ended racism. To change the world, I think we should aim higher. Second, I'm increasingly convinced that no matter who uses the term, it hides a slur. When used to refer to others, it connotes zealotry and obstructionism, and when taken as self-definition, it is seen as an attack by anyone who does not apply it to herself. Yes, it's a highly defensible moral philosophy, right up there with Peter Singer's application of Utilitarianism to animal liberation, and Tom Regan's Theory of Rights, but like those other intellectual concepts, it's useful only so far as it engenders right action. — Sarahjane Blum

There are currently thousands of police officers who feel some degree of alienation from the people for whom they risk their lives. They are fearful that if they act according to their training, they will be unfairly judged to have done something wrong. Many officers have reported to me the feeling of anger and betrayal at always being portrayed as the "bad guy" in the media when they take police action. They believe that most of the public buys into the negative image of police often presented by the media and has no idea what police work requires. — Lawrence N. Blum

Bettinger bought his first genetic test in 2003. A few years later he launched a blog - The Genetic Genealogist - with the aim of explaining the science behind the tests in simple language. — Deborah Blum

'Toonami' was a tremendous vehicle, delivering the art of Japanese animation to a massive audience that may have otherwise never experienced it. I feel an immense debt of gratitude to everyone involved with the show and to every fan who supported it. — Steven Blum

I try to work with people who you're not used to seeing in scary movies. I think it makes for a more interesting mix, when you're watching the movie. — Jason Blum

There are a lot of parallels between doing a sequel and doing low budget movies, which is they give creative parameters. As a creative person myself, I work better with parameters as opposed to anything goes. — Jason Blum

I love Hitchcock movies. I took a Hitchcock class in college, so I saw all his movies. I wrote papers on his movies. — Jason Blum

You can't be a creative person and not fall in love with everything. Every movie I've made there's a complicated, twisted love affair with. — Jason Blum

Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship. — William Blum

When there's a great horror movie, people are like, 'Horror's back!' And when there's a series of not so good ones, 'Horror's dead.' I think it's all about the quality. When there are one or two good horror movies in a row, people come out interested again. — Jason Blum

The Soviet Union and something called communism per se had not been the object of Washington's global attacks. There had never been an International Communist Conspiracy. The enemy was, and remains, any government or movement, or even individual, that stands in the way of the expansion of the American Empire; by whatever name the US gives to the enemy - communist, rogue state, drug trafficker, terrorist. — William Blum

My easiest judgment for a script is 'do I want to keep reading it?' — Jason Blum

even if a perfect system could be designed, it would still have to operate in an imperfect world. — Deborah Blum

The cause of Freedom and the cause of Peace are bound together. — Leon Blum

Multiple networks run through the same wires, even though they are owned and operated by independent organizations - perhaps a university and a telephone carrier, say, or a telephone carrier contracted to a university. The networks carry networks. One — Andrew Blum

Your subjective experience carries more power than your objective situation. If you feel like you're alone even when you're in a room filled with the people closest to you, you're going to have problems. If you feel like you're well supported even though there's nobody else in sight; if you carry relationships in your head; if you come at the world with a sense that people care about you, that you're valuable, that you're okay; then your body is going to act as if you're okay - even if you're wrong about all that. — Deborah Blum

But one of the rules I don't like to break is we still do - 95% of our movies are low budget. We're offered bigger, larger budget movies to produce a lot, and we don't do them. That's not to say there aren't exceptions, there are a few exceptions, but I try and stick by the rules that produce what I think is the highest quality, most innovative work and try and let the rules go that make us feel like we're retreading. — Jason Blum

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II — William Blum

I think good suspense and horror is really about creating situations that are relatable, and throwing a wrench in it and watching how people respond to it. — Jason Blum

I love being the underdog. It's one of the reason I like making horror movies, because a lot of people don't like them or are prejudiced against them. So it's one of the many reasons I like horror and it's also the reason I like low budget, because it automatically makes us the underdog. — Jason Blum

The greatest rewards come only from the greatest commitment. — Arlene Blum

It takes the faith of a child to follow Christ and the courage of a man to follow through on that faith and become a true servant. — Faith Blum

We have creative freedom because of budgets. Ever since I have been doing low budget movies, we've really had creative freedom. — Jason Blum

Our leaders are cruel because only those willing to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment. People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassion and empathy toward faraway powerless strangers do not become president of the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state, or national security adviser or secretary of the treasury. Nor do they want to. — William Blum

Learning requires inefficiency. — Deborah Blum

As the mother of the ten-month-old hospitalized in San Diego said, if people want to make that choice, they should go live on an island with its own schools and doctors: "their own little infectious disease island. — Deborah Blum

But, it's much easier to do that than produce the movies from scratch. It excites the same thing in me, whether we build it from the ground up, or whether we come on when the movie is done or almost done. The idea of supporting the underdog and getting a smaller movie out there in a big way is equally exciting. — Jason Blum

You know, it's a wonderful thing. I have to say that some of the greatest actors I've ever worked with have been doing anime for years. It's not just because of the popularity, either. — Steven Blum

I think being snobby about the kind of storytelling people do, it just irks me. It irks me. And in fact, it's one of the things that drives me to make as many horror movies as I do. — Jason Blum

For me it's much more like a little kid rebelling. The minute I was told what to do at any age, I did the opposite. Hopefully I'll do that for the rest of my life. I come from the business side and Mark comes from the creative side, but every time a decision came up about Creep it was two emails, and we agreed. I've not had that ever with someone on the creative or the business side. — Jason Blum

Government reporters may cover City Hall. Education reporters may write about schools and school boards. Science writers may report on asteroids one day, HIV vaccine experiments the next, sonar technology the next, a universe without boundaries. — Deborah Blum

Grub Street Writers is the reason I've stayed in Boston. I started teaching for Grub back in 1997, when founder Eve Bridburg, a Boston University M.A. alumna, as I am, kindly gave me my first job out of grad school. — Jenna Blum

Terror is the poor man's war, war is the rich man's terror. Ultimately, all wars will end either in annihilation or at the negotiating table. (#) A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but can't afford an air force. — William Blum

The creatures came up the stairs a few at a time, pausing to sit up and sniff the air. Their eyes glinted in the darkness.They were a foot long. They were covered in moth-eaten grey fur and they had enormous fangs and big bushy tails, and there were maybe twenty of them, chittering from all around.
Vampire crack squirrels, thought James, and wished he hadn't. — Jonathan Blum

In each life there comes at least one moment, which, if recognized and seized, transforms the course of that life forever. Rely, therefore, on radical trust, even though the moment may call for you to leap empty-handed into the void. — Ralph Blum

Anime has been good to me. I made and continue to make very little money at it, but the undying, feverish loyalty of the fans of the genre has been such a life-changing influence for me that I wanted to do everything I possibly could to help give something back to them. — Steven Blum

If love is blind, patriotism has lost all five senses. — William Blum

The U.S. government spends billions of dollars on disasters after they happen, but it pinches pennies when it comes to preparing for them. — Deborah Blum

After World War II society had to settle back for a moment before it picked up the 20th century. — Stella Blum

Anime has sent me all over the world, introducing me to people who have touched my life in indescribably profound ways. — Steven Blum

Know thyself. Nothing in excess. The Self is required to balance the Self. — Ralph Blum

Why don't church leaders forbid Catholics from joining the military with the same fervor they tell Catholics to stay away from abortion clinics? — William Blum

Massachusetts is seeing a surge in the number of unvaccinated children. Last year nearly 1,200 kids entered kindergarten with religious or philosophical vaccine exemptions, roughly double the total about a decade ago. — Deborah Blum

You cannot seek for the ideal outside the realm of reality. — Leon Blum

I think the most honest responses to the movies you get to watch are in houses and people's most private spaces, like the bedroom or in your own intimate space. I think that's where you feel safest, so when you're threatened in the place you feel safest, it makes for the scariest situations. — Jason Blum

I'm a big believer in creating parameters for creativity. I think parameters make people more creative. So that starts with my budgets. I only do low budget movies, and I think that makes the movies better. — Jason Blum

The free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought. — Leon Blum

There's S-VOD, which is 3 1/2 months after the theatrical release. The windows are going to get closer and closer, and the sooner they collapse in my mind the better it'll be for everybody. It's coming, but change is hard. It will be more profitable for everybody, including exhibitors. — Jason Blum

two in the morning, and this time she was home. She answered the door still half asleep, wearing yoga pants and an oversized Ohio State sweatshirt. Her hair was pulled back, tucked beneath a scarf with a red-and-white gingham pattern. She must have been expecting someone else - a boyfriend, perhaps, or possibly even one of them - because it took her a moment to recognize — Jason Blum

From this vantage point in the summer, the countryside below is a dreaming checkerboard over which it seems that one could, with a running start, spread one's arms and fly. — Jenna Blum

'Rosemary's Baby' is still one of my favorite movies of all time. The idea of her being impregnated with the devil is just so frightening. I'm actually going to work on a movie in February, called 'Mercy,' from Jason Blum, who produced the 'Paranormal Activity' movies, and there is a similar theme to 'Rosemary's Baby' in the movie. — Dylan McDermott

The only way I think about kids in production is practically, the younger the kids are the harder it is to shot the movie. — Jason Blum

Currently there's no other way to get a movie into 3,000 theaters except with a studio. We have a first-look deal with Universal, and it's been fun to work with them. But studios are a part of our life. I think they'll always be, but they'll play a different role. The consumer and the creator are getting closer together. — Jason Blum

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy. — Ralph Blum