Kosinski Quotes & Sayings

You want the film to be critically successful - you certainly want the film to be financially successful so that you can ... well, because that's how movies like this are made, you know, they need to make money. But as a director, you can only make the movie that you want to make. — Joseph Kosinski

All my life I've been hiding. — Jerzy Kosinski

She protected herself by making herself believe no-one else could ever really understand her. — Jerzy Kosinski

A novelist has a specific poetic license which also applies to his own life. — Jerzy Kosinski

At first I was afraid that I would be left defenseless, that I would babble aloud the things I've always been terrified of saying. Instead, opium made me realize that I could say anything I liked without losing my identity. — Jerzy Kosinski

The popular culture says ... Do what you do, your life is predestined, like the installment plan on your house. There's not much you can do about it. Make your payments, live it, get sick, die, don't make any trouble. It is the Master Charge of destiny. Try to get your high credit rating. — Jerzy Kosinski

Obviously, there are lots of lessons to be learned on a first movie. — Joseph Kosinski

It's not that you aren't likable. On the contrary. You are. It's just that one wonders if you haven't made a career out of being so likable. — Jerzy Kosinski

All cats are the same in the dark, says the proverb. But it certainly did not apply to people, with them it was just the opposite. During the day they were all alike, running in their well-defined ways. At night they changed beyond recognition. — Jerzy Kosinski

You don't die in the United States, you underachieve. — Jerzy Kosinski

Can the imagination, any more than the boy, be held prisoner ?"
- from the foreword to the 1976 edition of "The Painted Bird — Jerzy Kosinski

There are many types of participation. One can observe so intensely that one becomes part of the action, but without being an active participant. — Jerzy Kosinski

Certainly there's pressure while your making the movie. — Joseph Kosinski

I'm sure there are aspects of my personality buried within me that will surface as soon as I know I am completely loved. — Jerzy Kosinski

When I was in architecture school, rather than giving us drafting boards and t-squares and lead pencils and stuff they gave us all the same tools that places like Digital Domain and ILM used to make features films or special effects. They gave us all these digital tools like Alias and Mya and Soft Image and all these kind of high-end computers, so I came out of architecture school knowing how to use all that stuff. And I started making short films at night. — Joseph Kosinski

That's why she keeps her nails long, she says, to be able to scratch and claw. — Jerzy Kosinski

Travel gives me the opportunity to walk through the sectors of cities where one can clearly see the passage of time. — Jerzy Kosinski

Any film is a collaborative process, you've got thousands and thousands of people working on it. — Joseph Kosinski

Gatherings and, simultaneously, loneliness are the conditions of a writer's life — Jerzy Kosinski

I look back into past history, the stored experiences or products of the imagination. I look no further forward than the evening. — Jerzy Kosinski

I don't wear glasses, so I like the idea of not having to put them on to watch a movie. It's a hard barrier to get beyond. — Joseph Kosinski

I am curious about grownups, not children. — Jerzy Kosinski

For me the Blu-ray version is kind of the definitive version of the movie. — Joseph Kosinski

Physical comfort has nothing to do with any other comfort. — Jerzy Kosinski

Well I grew up in the Midwest, and I think the first film that blew my mind was 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.' — Joseph Kosinski

It is possible to stand around with a cocktail in one's hand and talk with everyone, which means with no one. — Jerzy Kosinski

The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke. — Jerzy Kosinski

I always have a sense of trembling, but so does a compass, after all. — Jerzy Kosinski

The planned sit-down reception is an artificial forum where one is presented with a limited number of persons with whom he can hold a conversation. — Jerzy Kosinski

So this is insanity. How interesting. What happens next? — Jerzy Kosinski

In a garden, things grow ... but first, they must wither; trees have to lose their leaves in order to put forth new leaves, and to grow thicker and stronger and taller. Some trees die, but fresh saplings replace them. Gardens need a lot of care. But if you love your garden, you don't mind working in it, and waiting. Then in the proper season you will surely see it flourish. — Jerzy Kosinski

What we remember lacks the hard edge of fact. To help us along we create little fictions, highly subtle and individual scenarios which clarify and shape our experience. The remembered event becomes a fiction, a structure made to accommodate certain feelings. This is obvious to me. If it weren't for these structures, art would be too personal for the artist to create, much less for the audience to grasp. Even film, the most literal of all the arts, is edited. - Jerzy Kosinski — Erica Jong

It mattered little if one was mute; people did not understand one another anyway. They collided with or charmed one another, hugged or trampled one another, but everyone knew only himself. His emotions, memory, and senses divided him from others as effectively as thick reeds screen the mainstream from the muddy bank. Like the mountain peaks around us, we looked at one another, separated by valleys, too high to stay unnoticed, too low to touch the heavens. — Jerzy Kosinski

I think some people are under the impression that you can simply just shoot it on blue, and then it's all done in post. But no, you really need to understand the pipeline, from beginning to end. — Joseph Kosinski

Once I got out of architecture school I decided not to be an architect, I just started my own little design studio. — Joseph Kosinski

Ruined chimneys rose above masses of broken bricks — Jerzy Kosinski

I don't think every movie should be made in 3-D, and it should depend on whether it's one of these films that's more immersive or needs to be taken to another world. I'm interested in other formats. — Joseph Kosinski

We know our lives are chaotic, but we insist that everything happen in an orderly way and be logically conceived. — Jerzy Kosinski

In London, the weather would affect me negatively. I react strongly to light. If it is cloudy and raining, there are clouds and rain in my soul. — Jerzy Kosinski

Life is a state of mind. — Jerzy Kosinski

I think the excitement of movies is discovering stuff you weren't expecting, and I hope to preserve that. — Joseph Kosinski

As a director, if you know what you want, then it's not scary. — Joseph Kosinski

That's the tricky thing these days: being able to surprise people. — Joseph Kosinski

In a science fiction movie, the first act is a little longer than it is in most movies because there is so much world building to do. — Joseph Kosinski

Had it been possible for me to fix the plane permanently in the sky, to defy the winds and clouds and all the forces pushing it upward and pulling it earthward, I would have willingly done so. I would have stayed in my seat with my eyes closed, all strength and passion gone, my mind as quiescent as a coat rack under a forgotten hat, and I would have remained there, timeless, unmeasured, unjudged, bothering no one, suspended forever between my past and my future. — Jerzy Kosinski

I heard, one of my producers told me this story where like the Hollywood studios brought all these high-end consultants in to try to figure out how to improve their process and make films more efficiently, and these consultants like studied the process for years and finally came up with this report they put together about how studios can improve the efficiency of their process, and the conclusion was have the script ready by the time you're shooting. — Joseph Kosinski

Photography was the first foreign language of my artistic expression. — Jerzy Kosinski

Of course there are always exceptions, but opinions are not to be feared. — Joseph Kosinski

It's a fine line to find that balance: to show people enough to give them the promise of something unique, and something they want to see, but at the same time make sure that when they show up for the movie, they're surprised by what they eventually get. — Joseph Kosinski

There's a place beyond words where experience first occurs to which I always want to return. I suspect that whenever I articulate my thoughts or translate my impulses into words, I am betraying the real thoughts and impulses which remain hidden. — Jerzy Kosinski

I write when I feel like it, and I feel like it most of the time. — Jerzy Kosinski

Working with Joe [Kosinski], definitely. I loved working with Joe. For a guy who doesn't really come from the fiction world - he comes from advertising and architecture - he's extremely easy-going and very calm. He's extremely detailed, but a very generous and fun director to work with. He really encouraged me to find the fun in the part and to have fun with it. — James Frain

Sometimes with these things all the pieces fall into place. I mean, we've been talking about this for years and we don't have the script now, but sometimes things fall into place very quickly, and if everything lines up it could happen. — Joseph Kosinski

One day he trapped a large raven, whose wings he painted red, the breast green, and the tail blue. When a flock of ravens appeared over our hut, Lekh freed the painted bird. As soon as it joined the flock a desperate battle began. The changeling was attacked from all sides. Black, red, green, blue feathers began to drop at our feet. The ravens ran amuck in the skies, and suddenly the painted raven plummeted to the freshly-plowed soil. It was still alive, opening its beak and vainly trying to move its wings. Its eyes had been pecked out, and fresh blood streamed over its painted feathers. It made yet another attempt to flutter up from the sticky earth, but its strength was gone. — Jerzy Kosinski

Disney's clearly in the business of doing giant tent pole movies based on properties that they own. And that's what they should be doing because they're great at doing that. — Joseph Kosinski

As a boy I got the idea that death was an animal which lay curled inside waiting to swallow us. — Jerzy Kosinski

In my photographs it is apparent that there was no posing at the moment I released the shutter. — Jerzy Kosinski

You know, boy versus girl. But she's a tough warrior, so I almost treated it like unisex. But it makes a difference how tall the actors are, because I needed to know that if Olivia Wilde sits in a car that the director, Joe Kosinski can still get the angle he wants, as opposed to maybe in another vehicle than Jeff Bridges has to sit in. So that was fascinating. Because in a real car you change everything and adjust it. But here you have one shot. — Daniel Simon

But the script's got to be at a level that makes it worth going back for, because it's a lot of work to make a movie like this and it's a multi-year project. So we've got our writer Jesse Wigutow on it right now writing, and fingers crossed if it all comes together, as we hope it will, there could be another Tron in the next few years, and it's going to be awesome. — Joseph Kosinski

But I grew up in a place where no one knew anyone in the entertainment business, I never knew it was an actual career. The closest I ever got to movies was going to watch them, and I thought that's the way it would be, so I never considered working in this business. — Joseph Kosinski

All my father saw was what he wanted to see. — Jerzy Kosinski

I was pushing myself to extremes in order to discover my many selves. — Jerzy Kosinski

I realized that I loved using computers to create something, but being an architect just wasn't going to keep me interested. The idea of a life spent obsessing over bathroom details for an Upper East Side penthouse was pretty depressing. — Joseph Kosinski

I think that while you're making the film it's important to just keep your eye on the ball and make the best movie you can, and then realize that it's out of your control. — Joseph Kosinski

Freezing kills the flavor. — Jerzy Kosinski

Of all mammals, only a human being can say 'no. — Jerzy Kosinski

The idea itself, the notion of what the next Tron could be, is exciting enough that it would be worth going back to do it. Obviously we hinted some things at the end of Legacy, it's kind of there for people to see what that potential is. So we just want to make sure that we have a script that delivers on that promise on an epic scale. — Joseph Kosinski

Banks introduced the installment plan. The disappearance of cash and the coming of the credit card changed the shape of life in the United States. — Jerzy Kosinski

I have always suspected everyone who likes me of having poor judgment. I despise them for being so easily taken in. — Jerzy Kosinski

The commercial music video industry is very hard to break into, and until you break in, that first job is the hardest thing in the world to get. — Joseph Kosinski

Movies don't sit in the theaters for an entire summer like they did in 1982. Now you've got a two- or three-week shelf life so you need to have that awareness right off the bat. And in order to make a lot of people know about your movie, you need to be out there banging the drum and showing your stuff. — Joseph Kosinski

An established property can be a blessing and a challenge. On one hand you have all those fans of the original that you can pick up with and continue on with but then you have a lot of people out there who haven't seen the first and might feel like this isn't a movie for them because of that. — Joseph Kosinski

There are a lot of limitations so you have to ultimately focus on what you think the most important storyline is. — Joseph Kosinski

It is not sex by itself that interests me, but its particular role in American consciousness, and in my own life. — Jerzy Kosinski

The recent Dictionary of Occupational Titles lists over twenty thousand specialized professions in America; being a millionaire is not one of them. — Jerzy Kosinski

I'd like to have the script in a much better place from day one of shooting, rather than trying to continue to work on it while you shoot it. I think those are lessons you learn on any film. — Joseph Kosinski

Chance waited patiently until she stopped. — Jerzy Kosinski

My cynicism continuously undermines her faith in her own ability to master her moods. — Jerzy Kosinski

I've said it would have to be our Empire Strikes Back for me to come back and for me to pull the whole team back together. I think we do have that idea. We do have the idea that feels big and really blows the doors off this franchise. It's hinted at promises of something for two movies now, for thirty years, so it's time to deliver on that. — Joseph Kosinski

Well the only reason to go back, for me and I think for anyone involved would be if we could do something truly spectacular. We've been talking about it for a couple years and there's always been this idea, a big idea, in the back of my head that we've been talking about. — Joseph Kosinski

So Disney has their full support behind it, which is great, but again it's got to be the right story. It's got to be a script that's up to snuff and worth going back for. The idea's there, the ambition's there, the excitement's there; but we need to have all the pieces in place before they would ever pull the trigger on that. — Joseph Kosinski

Our language has lost its ability to convey the spontaneous. — Jerzy Kosinski

Take a look at the books other people have in their homes. — Jerzy Kosinski

There should be no promise of a plot. Plot is extraordinary, while chance is ordinary. — Jerzy Kosinski

When people claim to know who I am, I can no longer act freely. — Jerzy Kosinski

Take whatever you can from others, and when there is nothing left, forget about them. — Jerzy Kosinski

Lovers are not snails; they don't have to protrude from their shells and meet each other halfway. Meet me within your own self. — Jerzy Kosinski

I can create countries just as I can create the actions of my characters. That is why a lot of travel seems to me a waste of time. — Jerzy Kosinski

The native calls the baobab 'the devil tree' because he claims that the devil, getting tangled in its branches, punished by the tree by reversing it. To the native, the roots are branches now, and the branches are roots. To ensure that there would be no more baobabs, the devil destroyed all the young ones. — Jerzy Kosinski

Chance was to work in the garden, where he would care for plants and grasses and trees which grew there peacefully. He would be as one on them: quiet, open hearted in the sunshine and heavy when it rained. — Jerzy Kosinski

I collect human relationships very much the way others collect fine art. — Jerzy Kosinski

I deserve no punishment at all for being who I am. — Jerzy Kosinski

I was always looking for a career that could combine my creative interests with my technical side, and it ends up directing films is the perfect combination. — Joseph Kosinski

And really the purpose of art - for me, fiction - is to alert, to indicate to stop, to say: Make certain that when you rush through you will not miss the moment which you might have had, or might still have. — Jerzy Kosinski

A trait which differentiated New York from European cities was the incredible freedom and ease in which life, including sexual life, could be carried on, on many levels. — Jerzy Kosinski

If we reduce social life to the smallest possible unit we will find that there is no social life in the company of one. — Jerzy Kosinski

Karen told me about an old woman who was the last surviving inhabitant of one of the Hermit Islands. She was the only one left who could speak her tribe's language, but the anthropologists didn't realize it and never bothered to learn it from her. When the old woman died, the language died with her. — Jerzy Kosinski

He had found the one calm place in the midst of the storm, a quiet voice calling him to earth. — Jerzy Kosinski

You never want to intentionally make a confusing movie. — Joseph Kosinski

I went to school for engineering, I studied jazz. So I always had this kind of creative side and technical side, and I thought architecture might be the way to combine them, so I went to architecture school in New York. — Joseph Kosinski