Words matter. These are the best Haris Pasovic Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
In war, everything changes. You are very selective of what you do because everything you do can be the last thing you do in your life.
The U.S. Declaration of Independence enshrines the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Alas, that is not the case everywhere in the world.
The 21st century is significantly different from the 20th century. The old models will not hold anymore. More and more, we are one people on Earth. We need to share our problems.
The industry of political conflict is the biggest industry in Bosnia, and it is still not exhausted. What is needed is to replace these two industries – the industry of political conflict, the industry of human rights – with normal, creative walks of life.
I work in theater, so I am always working in front of empty chairs. They represent a future presence. They are never just chairs.
Many have asked me, ‘Why have a film festival in the middle of a war?’ But they have it backwards. The question is, ‘Why have a war in the middle of a film festival?’
My company is called East-West Theatre precisely because Sarajevo is this city on the border between East and West, the place where the Great Mosque and the Catholic Cathedral and the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral stand almost within touching distance of each other.
I learned a lot about Ottoman court, and it was very Shakespearian in essence. Stories like the one in ‘Hamlet’ did happen several times in the 500 years of Ottoman history.
We realised that art, theatre, and music in Sarajevo were resistance at the deepest level.
My company, East West, was founded on the premise that people need to group together and not be xenophobic, parochial, or provincial.
‘Hamlet’ is a universal story that concerns us all. These issues do not concern only Muslims, but all people equally, showing that we all share the same problems regardless of religion, nation and culture.
Life is not just food, it’s something spiritual.
People have to have food for their souls.
Art can articulate new ideas.
Art has to be able to match life, to respond to the ever-changing forms of the world, to electrify the audience.
Culture is a part of basic human nature, of deep humanity.
Yes, I am mad – like the Marquis de Sade was mad, like Giordano Bruno was mad, like Antonin Artaud was mad.
There’s no real theatre without taking risks.
War and peace-making, human rights, humanitarian issues have become industries, but nobody looks closely at human greed, at the arms industry and the manufacture of landmines. Art has to take a wider view. The problems of Ireland are my problems, too.
The more film festivals, theatrical shows, and music performances and visual arts we have, the less chances there are for war. Art is hope, and it is found in hope, and that’s why we need to share our experiences and cherish art.
I think we are slowly killing liberty, creativity, intelligent thinking; it’s as if we are being led into a world that is like a huge shopping centre, with a sort of anaesthesia about everything except the choice of goods in front of us.
My theatre is not a conventional one. It is bold, serious, funny, confronting. It is anything but boring.
