Emir Quotes & Sayings

You know, in each segment of ex-Yugoslavia, multi-ethnic life is lost, except I think we somehow still have this in Serbia. — Emir Kusturica

What happened?"
"Oil." The sheikh shook his head. "The great cursed wealth from beneath the ground that the Prophet foresaw would destroy us. And statehood-what a terrible idea that was, eh? This part of the world was never meant to function that way. Too many languages, too many tribes, too motivated by ideas those high-heeled cartographers from Paris couldn't understand. Don't understand. Will never understand. Well, God save them-they're not the ones who have to live in this mess. They said a modern state needs a single leader, a secular leader, and the emir was the closest thing we had. So to the emir went all the power. And anyone who thinks that isn't a good idea is hounded down and tossed in jail, as you have so recently discovered. All so that some pantywaist royal nephew can have a seat at the UN and carry a flag in the Olympics and be thoroughly ignored. — G. Willow Wilson

T. Wiggett Jones: It should be illegal ... to feel this rotten ... without a variety of loathsome memories to cherish.
Wild Wild West (TV) First Season: Night of the Grand Emir — Michael Garrison

My father was an atheist and he always described himself as a Serb. OK, maybe we were Muslim for 250 years, but we were orthodox before that and deep down we were always Serbs, religion cannot change that. We only became Muslims to survive the Turks. — Emir Kusturica

Now, about your timetable. It may spread out a little more than you thought. They want me to visit the palace and see it for myself. We're to go in the Emir's yacht, leaving tonight. — Susan Leona Fisher

I've been around some very famous people, but no one has the effect Maradona has; people tremble in his presence. — Emir Kusturica

The advantage of the gypsy language, even though I don't understand it that much, the language is perfect melody. So if you propose the movie the way I do, then the language is just one part of the melody. Orchestrating all inside, and the language is following the meaning of what they say, and it's never the same as written. — Emir Kusturica

I put my ideas into practice. That may be the reason people hate me. — Emir Kusturica

Every movie that I do, if you analyze the stories, you can notice that in each story, that within the movie after the first 15 minutes, it could fall apart. Or every 10 minutes it has the chance that you lose the thread. On the other hand, if you succeed in putting them together, then the movie looks spontaneous and more like cinema. — Emir Kusturica

I'm fed up with democracy. In a democracy, people vote for the mayors. I wanted to build a city where I will choose the citizens. — Emir Kusturica

I've reached the 50th year of my life, and now every question related with life also includes thinking about death. When I leave, I want to leave to my offspring a clear idea about identity. — Emir Kusturica

But the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the quarter-deck, seems to feel relieved from some curious restraint; for, tipping all sorts of knowing winks in all sorts of directions, and kicking off his shoes, he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right over the Grand Turk's head; and then, by a dexterous sleight, pitching his cap up into the mizentop for a shelf, he goes down rollicking so far at least as he remains visible from the deck, reversing all other processions, by bringing up the rear with music. But ere stepping into the cabin doorway below, he pauses, ships a new face altogether, and, then, independent, hilarious little Flask enters King Ahab's presence, in the character of Abjectus, or the Slave. — Herman Melville

Alif jerked his backpack over one shoulder. "I just feel like this whole thing is getting out of control."

"We live in a city run by an emir from one of the most inbred families on earth, where a few censors can throw someone in jail for writing things on the Internet and falling in love with the wrong person." Dina reached out to be helped to her feet. "It went out of control a long time ago. — G. Willow Wilson

Just because I believe in the identity and integrity of my country doesn't make a xenophobe or a nationalist. — Emir Kusturica

The most difficult part of making movies is to keep making them. Maybe, you could make the biggest hit in the world, but then the big problem is what to do next and how to maintain devoted to a certain instinct that I have about films. — Emir Kusturica

Every time I'm shooting a movie I want to kill myself. Because I don't see the light in the end of the tunnel. — Emir Kusturica

Yugoslavia was a kind of superpower. Great movies. Beautiful novels. Great rock-and-roll. We became a superpower in basketball. The problem is that people needed to identify more strongly with it after Tito and his awful, tricky way of leading the country. — Emir Kusturica

I am Emir Dynamite!" he shouted, swaying on top of the tall camelback. "If within two days we don't get any decent food, I'll incite the tribes to revolt! I swear! I will appoint myself the Prophet's representative and declare holy war, jihad. On Denmark, for example. Why did the Danes torment their Prince Hamlet? Considering the current political situation, a casus beli like this would satisfy even the League of Nations. No, seriously, I'll buy a million worth of rifles from the British
they love to sell firearms to the tribes
and onward to Denmark. Germany will let us through
in lieu of war reparations. Imagine the tribes invading Copenhagen! I'll lead the charge on a white camel. — Ilya Ilf

I am finished with cities. I spent four years in New York, ten in Paris, and I was in Belgrade for a while. To me now they are just airports. — Emir Kusturica

That is a Medieval way of drawing history, in which they do not respect the law and want the rest of the world to respect the law. That's not possible. — Emir Kusturica

To be sure, there exists in principle a quite simple economic mechanism that should restore equilibrium to the process: the mechanism of supply and demand. If the supply of any good is insufficient, and its price is too high, then demand for that good should decrease, which should lead to a decline in its price. In other words, if real estate and oil prices rise, then people should move to the country or take to traveling about by bicycle (or both). Never mind that such adjustments might be unpleasant or complicated; they might also take decades, during which landlords and oil well owners might well accumulate claims on the rest of the population so extensive that they could easily come to own everything that can be owned, including rural real estate and bicycles, once and for all.3 As always, the worst is never certain to arrive. It is much too soon to warn readers that by 2050 they may be paying rent to the emir of Qatar. — Thomas Piketty

My purpose is to make a movie to make you warm. To give you some heat. Now, this rational world has become a place where only what is cool is good. Do you cut the movie on the basis of the beat of modernity or the basis of the beat of your own heart? — Emir Kusturica

Making movies is a dangerous job. Because you are always the one who stands at the center of the universe when making movies. — Emir Kusturica

If we were united and strong, we'd elect our own emir (leader) and give allegiance to him ... Take my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us. — Siraj Wahhaj

I was a big fighter when I was younger. In bars I was ready to explode and fight. — Emir Kusturica

I am a living illustration of Bosnian mixing and converting. My grandparents lived in eastern Herzegovina. Very poor. The Turks came and brought Islam. There were three brothers in the family. One was Orthodox Christian. The other two took Islam to survive. — Emir Kusturica

You are saddened by love's importance in the emir's life?"
He paused. "I am frustrated by its importance in all our lives. — Renee Ahdieh

In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernize, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with very good things and very bad things. — Emir Kusturica

Scraps
The scraps from the meal of the Emir are larger than the gifts of halwa from the merchant.

Timur Fazil — Idries Shah

What you have now is a Hollywood that is pure poison. Hollywood was a central place in the history of art in the 20th century: it was human idealism preserved. And then, like any great place, it collapsed, and it collapsed into the most awful machinery in the world. — Emir Kusturica

I never wanted an independent Bosnia. I wanted Yugoslavia. That is my country. — Emir Kusturica

I will not cut my film because, because, because, because of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. — Emir Kusturica

what you have to do, and I'm so fucking proud of you. Not many people who make that choice. And Emir, it's the right one. — Mika Tarkin

When, like an Emir of tyrannic power,
Sirius appears, and on the horizon black
Bids countless stars pursue their mighty track. — Victor Hugo