I think if I've worked anything through with screenwriting it's that I'm not going to be able to work anything through.
Charlie KaufmanRead
When I'm writing, I'm trying to immerse myself in the chaos of an emotional experience, rather than separate myself from it and look back at it from a distance with clarity and tell it as a story. Because that's how life is lived, you know?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of experiencing emotions deeply while creating art rather than analyzing them from a distance.
Charlie Kaufman's quote reflects the essence of artistic expression, highlighting the necessity of fully engaging with chaotic emotions during the creative process. By immersing oneself in the rawness of experience, the artist captures the true vibrancy of life, which often unfolds in unpredictable and messy ways. This approach contrasts with a detached storytelling perspective, suggesting that authenticity in art comes from embracing rather than distancing oneself from emotional turmoil.
Themes
EmotionsArtExperienceCreativityStorytelling
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the creative process to inspire artists.
More from Charlie Kaufman
All quotes →The world needs you. It doesn't need you at a party having read a book about how to appear smart at parties - these books exist, and they're tempting - but resist falling into that trap. The world needs you at the party starting real conversations, saying, 'I don't know,' and being kind.
Charlie KaufmanRead
There's no way to approach anything in an objective way. We're completely subjective; our view of the world is completely controlled by who we are as human beings, as men or women, by our age, our history, our profession, by the state of the world.
Charlie KaufmanRead
We try to organize the world, which isn't organized the way our brains want to organize it. We tell stories about the people in our lives, we project ideas onto them. We project relationships with people, we make our lives into stories. I don't think we can avoid doing that.
Charlie KaufmanRead
It occurred to me that every work of art is a synecdoche, there's no way around it. Every creative work that someone does can only represent an aspect of the whole of something. I can't think of an exception to that.
Charlie KaufmanRead
We have the script, we have the actors, and we're trying to figure out what this is, and you don't know what it is. You have to be open to what it's going to become rather than have this thing that you're trying to get to, which is boring.
Charlie KaufmanRead
Similar quotes
When a dish works, it works for everyone, whether you're Asian, European, African, American or anybody else.
Joel RobuchonRead
Some things you know about, you know what the ingredients are - maybe not all of them. But it's up to you to put in the amount. It's up to the director to nag you until you get it right.
Judi DenchRead
Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honor.
Ernest HemingwayRead
The arts are valuable because they increase our sense of what it means to be human, not because of any specific skill or ability they confer.
Naomi AldermanRead
I get unhappy doing things that I'm not passionate about. Because I feel like I'm squandering this incredible gift I've been given to finance films. As soon as my name alone was enough to make this happen, I vowed to myself that I was going to work with directors who were changing cinema, doing something important, you know?
Leonardo DicaprioRead
We're artists too, but we do a good job hiding it, don't we?
Roberto BolanoRead