The figure is still the only thing I have faith in in terms of how much emotion it’s charged with and how much subject matter is there.
We would sift through every inch of what it was that worked, or if it didn’t, and wonder what was effective in it, in terms of paint, the subject matter, the size, the drawing.
I think the American Western laid down a kind of subject matter that’s about following your instinct or following your gut and having a sort of removed quality from your humanity. And I think Clint Eastwood helped to establish that.
I have been frequently accused of deliberately twisting subject matter to my point of view. Above all, I know that life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference. Opinion often consists of a kind of criticism. But criticism can come out of love.
I think I have a responsibility as a film-maker to bring not only controversial subject matter to the screen but also to inspire a thought process.
Tech Jacket shares the same tone as Invincible, but the subject matter is very different. Where Invincible is about perfection, Tech Jacket is about flaws.
So many people seem to prefer my silver-screenings of movie stars to the rest of my work. It must be the subject matter that attracts them, because my death and violence paintings are just as good.
In Australia, even the darkest subject matter has a little pinch of humor. A little sweet to make the sour go down.
I’ve never met any artist who illustrated one of my books, although I’ve corresponded briefly with one. I have always been impressed by the technical expertise involved in the covers, even if sometimes puzzled by the subject matter.
I like dark subject matter. I’m not sure what that means about me!
Pretty much everything that I pick, when it comes to choosing roles, is just based on things and materials that grabs me. It’s pretty much the subject matter that I gravitate towards.
I can read a newspaper article, and it might trigger something else in my mind. I often like to choose in historical fiction things or subject matter I don’t feel have been given a fair shake in history.
People can get obsessed with romance, they can get obsessed with political paranoia, they can get obsessed with horror. It’s isn’t the fault of the subject matter that creates the obsession, I don’t think.
It’s like somehow my favorite filmmakers, you know, bounce between genres. Like if you look at a career of somebody like Soderbergh or Danny Boyle or the Coen’s. I mean, it goes – there’s no real through line other than just their style, but the type of genre or the type of subject matter seems to go all over.
Dream Theater music, there’s a lot of background and context to the songs, as far as the subject matter and the albums they come from.
I didn’t want to just be an analyst for women’s basketball and volleyball. I didn’t just want to be a sideline reporter. I didn’t just want to be a host. I wanted to be someone that my producers or coordinating producers could call on me for any event, any subject matter or any role.
George Orwell’s ‘1984’ frequently tops surveys of our greatest books: it’s not a celebration of poetic language. It’s decidedly anti-literary, a masterpiece of personal and political narrative sequence. And its subject matter is crucial, because what ‘1984’ shows is that language can be a dirty trick.
Los Angeles is an industry town, and it has great facilities and personnel. The disadvantage is that everyone there seems to talk about the same subject matter.
One of the things I’ve learned as a filmmaker is to have some aspect of the movie be something that I admire greatly, whether that’s an actor I’m working with, the subject matter, or a book.
There are roles I want that my agency might not want me to do because of the subject matter or whatever. Or there are roles that people won’t bring to me because they don’t think I’ll do it. And that is a big strain because an actor wants to act.
As an artist, I feel a certain responsibility to write about difficult subject matter.
Subject matter is sort of overemphasized in the way books get discussed, I think.
As far as subject matter, I’d say most of the songs aren’t that personal to me. I love making up characters and kind of having fun in a different kind of way.
If you don’t infuse humor into a subject matter, no matter how dark, the audience can’t accept the message of a film. It closes them down. Humor can open them up.
I’ve always had a tendency to keep an emergency exit in a song. I can’t remember ever writing a song that is completely and thoroughly depressing; there’s always been a way out somehow. A sense of hope in song, regardless of the subject matter.
That is the job of a comedian: To take unpleasant subject matter and forcibly, with his hands, wring the funny out of it.
Well, I think in my own work the subject matter usually deals with characters I know, aspects of myself, friends of mine – that sort of thing.
I don’t think of careers from a functional perspective or from a subject matter perspective. I think of careers as, how do you like spending the time in your day? What makes you happiest? What are you most passionate about?
When me and my author friends who write about other difficult subject matter… when you hear from teens daily saying, ‘Your book helped me or made me understand a friend better, what somebody else is going through,’ you see the positive things.
When there is a certain subject matter where I want to get involved, where I think I could add to the conversation, and especially with gender issues, I appreciate having that voice and that seat at the table.
Today it’s almost impossible to do it unless you are an actress or writer with power… I wouldn’t hesitate right this minute to hire a talented woman if the subject matter were right.
Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you’re not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming.
The problem is that too many adults think their kids’ lives are simple, or they try to make their lives simple, when their emotional lives are just as complicated as ours. They might have a few less tools to deal with it because they’re young, but the emotions are all the same, and the subject matter is all the same.
The times I’ve tried not to be funny, it’s never worked, and the times I’m trying not to be dark and just be funny, that never works, either. As varied as my subject matter is, I think the worldview is pretty consistent: seeing darkness and seeing humor.
People will reach out because they know I’m trying to put my best forward when it comes to subject matter and creation of song.
No one sets out to write escapism as a film’s subject matter unless, maybe, you are making a fantasy flick.
My first draft of Marvel Knights ‘Black Panther’ was not funny at all. They smartly rejected the entire script and counseled me to inject liberal doses of humor into very serious subject matter.
Most painting in the European tradition was painting the mask. Modern art rejected all that. Our subject matter was the person behind the mask.
Rogers and Hammerstein were such a genius pair. They were able to touch on subject matter so far ahead of its time.
I always thought that I had a pretty diverse body of work, I mean, as far as subject matter. Teenage rock and roll movie; romance; ’20s Western. On paper it looks different, but then there’s similarities in the vibe of them.
I hope they make a show like M*A*S*H, which dealt with a lot of difficult subject matter but was very funny.
It really helps if you know your subject matter immediately. I find that enormously useful because then you can concentrate on all the usual novelistic things – the character, the plot and so forth – and you don’t have to spend an enormous amount of time learning another trade, essentially.
What makes a publisher decide to market a book to a particular audience is not the subject matter but the style.
Robert Crumb is an influence on how I draw, but not on the subject matter I take or my approach. One thing I do like about Crumb is that he’s chronicled his age, his times, and I think that is what artists should do.
The truth of the matter is – when we look at things – every movie we do – no matter what the subject matter is – we go to the universal theme of family. We always go to that because if the movie is about family, then any audience can relate to it.
As an actor, you want new challenges. U.S. TV can be very formulaic. So when something gets a reaction, as ‘The Slap’ has, that’s great. The sense I get is that it’s not about me or my performance. More than anything it’s the subject matter that people are focused on.’
When you step out and do a song in a musical, the easier thing to do is make it funny. But when those transitions become necessary, when they aren’t camp, that, to me, is magic. I’ve done musical comedies and enjoyed them, but subject matter that’s deeper and more realistic is always what’s appealed to me most.
A lot of people are afraid of the idea of enslavement, and that’s because it’s tied to so much shame and guilt… That is the big elephant in the room, but a part of why we’re afraid to attack that subject matter is because of the way we’ve been taught about it.
I think Gwen, in her lyrics, always touches on personal subject matter.
You never know whether the subject matter will click with the audience at that particular time. I wish there was a formula, you know, ‘That plus that equals success.’
