Themes Quotations

'The 5th Wave' is sci-fi, but I tried very hard to ground the story in very human terms and in those universal themes that transcend genre. How do we define ourselves? What, exactly, does it mean to be human? What remains after everything we trust, everything we believe in and rely upon, has been stripped away?

We write in ways that, we generally hope, reflect real life, or at least look familiar to humans. And in life, recurring themes are a recurring theme. We never quite conquer a pet vice or a relationship pattern or a communication habit. We're haunted by our particular demons.

The stories are there first, and they come from my experiences wandering around in the world. They will resonate into bigger things, forces sweeping the planet, themes and archetypes, but I'm not smart enough to have lucid integration of all that in my head as I'm writing.

There are resurrection themes in every society that has ever been studied, and it is because not just only do we fantasize about the possibility of resurrection and recovery, but it actually happens. And it happens a lot.

I think horror films in the past maybe touched on social themes having to do with whatever era in which they were made, but in the end, it's definitely an escapist form of entertainment.

I do try very hard to develop themes that are easily understood and that, hopefully, will paint vivid images of the legal principles and implications of the ruling that will stick in the Justices' heads and will help influence how they think about the case.

I have no time for specialized concerns, working themes or variations that lead to mastery... I like the indefinite, the boundless; I like continual uncertainty. Other qualities may be more conducive to achievement, publicity, success; but they are all outworn - as outworn as ideologies, opinions, concepts and names for things.

Imagining themes that are specific to coating lines, shapes, shades, thoughts, the decoration of our homes and the objects of utility or pure pleasure, adapting its purpose in a material-specific way to metal or wood, marble or fabric - it is, without any doubt, an absorbing occupation.

Change and renewal are themes in life, aren't they? We keep growing throughout life.

After this, I took private lessons in Italian from an elementary school teacher. He gave me themes to write about, and some of them turned out so well that he told me to publish them in a newspaper.

In the household in which I was raised, the themes were pretty simple. 'Work hard. Don't quit. Be appreciative, be thankful, be grateful, be respectful. Also, never whine, never complain. And always, for crying out loud, keep a sense of humor.'

Above these universal themes 'Truth Will Set U Free' is also a song composed for those who were born gay. I am a straight man so I do not profess to understand or know what a LGBT person experiences but I do recognize injustice when I see it.

Most horror films fail to scare me. I think "The Ring" plays more as a psychological thriller. It's smarter, there's more character development and some of the themes explored go a little deeper.

I started collecting aerial photographs of Native American and South Pacific architecture; only the African ones were fractal. And if you think about it, all these different societies have different geometric design themes that they use. So Native Americans use a combination of circular symmetry and fourfold symmetry.

In my own life I studied music, not creative writing; I see a novel as music - an opening as an overture, themes and subplots as lines in a fugue. The chance to write a novel about a musician boxed in by all kinds of limitations but who plays out his ultimate struggle for freedom at the piano was irresistible.

Writing, for all that it's harder than nursing ever was, is also more joyous and more fun and a lot less dangerous. And the major themes of my life have become the major themes of my writing, too - so it has all worked out pretty well.

I like Ronald Reagan, who didn't play crass politics, and he just articulated and delivered on broad themes that were needed. Free markets meant free markets. Deregulation. Lower tax rates. Strong national defense. And he was credible and believable.

Thanksgiving is a season that is very much in accord with the themes and teachings of Jesus Christ.

I think what 'The Hobbit' and Middle-earth deal in are quite universal and timeless themes of honour and love and friendship... so they're things that do resonate with people.

One of the themes in my novels is that our crises can turn into blessings. We can feel like our world has crumbled, but ten years down the road when we look back on that time, we can see God's hand at work. I love writing that theme into my books.

'Dirty Jobs' is a fun, simple little show with huge themes under it. For me, it's penance, it's redemption, it's a sweaty mess.

'I Am Number Four' definitely borrows from a whole bunch of genres and has a whole bunch of different themes throughout. And I think if it was just one stale two-dimensional thing then it would be kind of boring. And I think they did a fantastic job.

Pay attention to the big themes because that's what will help you earn ten times your money.

From Borges, those wonderful gaucho stories from which I learned that you can be specific as to a time and place and culture and still have the work resonate with the universal themes of love, honor, duty, betrayal, etc. From Amiri Baraka, I learned that all art is political, although I don't write political plays.

Once we start hitting lyrical themes that can whack you from all these different perspectives, we know we're onto something special.

I don't have a real plan when I do an interview. I have some themes that I want to hit. But I don't have a set list of questions that I knock off.

I've always had the wish, the nostalgia to be able to write detective novels. At heart, the principal themes of detective novels are close to the things that obsess me: disappearance, the problems of identity, amnesia, the return to an enigmatic past.

My mum used to tell me to never boil my cabbages twice, and I think it's artistically valid. While I do find myself on similar themes in my books, I try not to repeat myself, and that's something which is all too easy to do in series books.

These are the themes in life which are consistent in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism - of being grounded in who you are and being engaged in an unjust world.

Writing for children, you do bear a responsibility to not include overt or graphic adult content that they are not ready for and don't need, or to address adult concepts or themes from an oblique angle or a child's limited viewpoint, with appropriate context, without being graphic or distressing.

I think my music's more disturbing than Tupac's - or at least I thought some of the themes of 'The Downward Spiral' were more disturbing on a deeper level - you know, issues about suicide and hating yourself and God and people and everything else.

The SF genre, of course, is really an organically evolved, marketplace-determined, idiosyncratic grab bag of themes and signifiers and characters and icons and gadgets, some of which hew to the realistic parameters and paradigms embraced by science, others of which partake more of fantasy and magic.

I think one of the primary themes in my work is the paradox of memory, at once fundamental to our sense of who we are and yet elusive, ever-changing, fragmentary. One way to look at this is to say that, therefore, we ourselves are elusive, ever-changing and fragmentary to ourselves.

Sometimes, I have themes that interest me or that touch on larger issues but, really, I'm just trying to figure out the plot, or how the characters work. I'm trying to make the best story I possibly can.

I think books with spiritual themes simply point to the deeper mysteries of life - to what lies beyond us, to what's hidden inside of us, or perhaps to an understanding of what truly matters.

Every day I fantasise about situations and little themes I see in front of me that would make a good beginning of a story. But one has to be disciplined and just sit down and do it.

In general, the main themes emerge early for each book, even before the storyline and characters, as I research the time and place I want to draw upon. Having said that, every single book so far has offered me surprises en route, and these include motifs that come forward as I am writing.

I want readers turning pages until three o'clock in the morning. I want the themes of books to stick around for a reader. I'm always trying to find a way to balance characters and theme.

I'm happy to stick with my persona. There are themes of love lost and love regained, but the main themes of all poems are basically love and death, and that seems to be the message of poetry.

The mere existence of 'Buffy' proves the declinists wrong about one thing: Hollywood commercialism can produce great art. Complex and evolving characters. Playful language. Joy and sorrow, pathos and elation. Episodes that dare to be different - to tell stories in silence or in song. Big themes and terrible choices.

Anxiety and spiritual searching have been consistent themes with me, and that figures into my worldview. But I tend to make my songs sound like relationship songs.

Multinational companies inside and outside the mainland (China) are turning to local and traditional themes to stand out from the all-too-often bland crowd of international corporate identities.

. . . one of the goals of life is to try and be in touch with one's most personal themes -- the values, ideas, styles, colors that are the touchstones of one's own individual life, its real texture and substance.

One of the recent themes has been the falling dollar, higher materials and commodities. If that is reversing, you could see a rotation out of materials and commodities. At the same time, oils are getting hit by falling crude prices.

Some months ago, while I was preparing a new work, I told a young cinema executive my intention of including in a soundtrack two themes from Bach. But when he asked me which has been the last hit from that Bach?, then I knew that I had no longer place in cinema.

Oh yeah. We're both athletic. We like to cause turnovers, put pressure on people. We're real similar. There's a lot of different themes that intervene with each other. But when it comes down to it, that just makes the competition level rise that much more. I expect a hard, scrappy game.

One of my assistants suggested it, and it became one of our themes at halftime that we have to make some shots against their zone if we were going to keep the lead and win.

One of the themes is how is it we cope with trials and tribulations? How do we endure struggles and come out differently? ... The book has been criticized for being messy, and it is messy in many ways, with loose ends and stories that don't tie up neatly. But why do we need to impose expectations?

One of the themes of Butterfly is incest. Before now, I don't think people could deal with the subject. Now that there have been exposes in major magazines and on television shows, and several films, the subject is at least more out in the open.

One of the themes we always discuss is to be mentally tough because we know the conference is a grind. (Going into Monday) the conference was 14-1 combined in the state tournaments. It might be the best percentage of all the conferences in the state. That says a lot about the level of competition we see every night.

I have greatly enjoyed my collaborations with Howard Shore, whose musical themes made immeasurable contributions to 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, ... During the last few weeks, Howard and I came to realize that we had differing creative aspirations for the score of 'King Kong.' Rather than waste time arguing with a friend and trying to unify our points of view, we decided amicably to let another composer score the film. I'm looking forward to working with James Newton Howard, a composer whose work I've long admired, and I thank Howard Shore, whose talent is surpassed only by his graciousness.

If they raised that much money and raised it that soon, it'll top a million. It is shaping up with the same themes as the Rural Heritage Initiative, just more money because the agriculture community is going to be there in spades.

Mature themes and sexual content in games is huge. The adult game market is taking off like a rocket!

Several of its themes and musical motifs are strikingly similar to those present in other Vivaldi works.

There are so many different themes and characters and worlds within the movie, ... Lo and behold, we find that the editing of all those little strains in a movie can be really difficult. I didn't want to start cutting out characters wholesale and savaging the many different performances. Over time, showing the movie became the only way to figure out how it was all rhythmically working.

There are so many different themes and characters and worlds within the movie. Lo and behold, we find that the editing of all those little strains in a movie can be really difficult. I didn't want to start cutting out characters wholesale and savaging the many different performances. Over time, showing the movie became the only way to figure out how it was all rhythmically working.

I can't make a movie unless I believe in the themes behind it. I mean, that's the first question I ask myself, always, is, 'What is this movie about?'

I can't imagine writing something that didn't address Jewish themes and questions. It's such a big part of my life, a lot of the way in which I experience the world.

I don't reinvent myself in any major way. It seems to be a slow evolution. I go back and visit certain themes that I feel strongly about and resonate with me emotionally.

For whatever reason, people are very interested in religion and religious themes right now. We are living in a religious age. You don?t have to be a believer to be interested in these themes.

But the themes our games are about, almost everyone brings their own experience to.

What women need today is classic things with an age, with fantasy, with a quality. Dresses you can live with. Sometimes it's the fabrics who win, sometimes it's the shape, but I always rework on themes that make Versace a classic name with serenity.

I always set out to tell a good story, to create a character that young people can relate to, place them in a situation that will be interesting, intriguing, eventually suspenseful. But what I find is that after I do that, then there are themes that emerge, which teachers can then use to provoke discussion and debate.

Imams must ridicule Caliphate fantasies. Exchange programmes between Muslim-only schools and non-Muslim-majority schools should be initiated. Community-based debates around these themes must no longer be shut down from fear of offence.

There aren't as many easy themes or uniting themes that people who come from the left side of the political and religious spectrum all agree on the way we've seen some of the issues on the religious right that have been easier to rally people around. So I don't know that you'll see something comparable - but you are certainly seeing more people getting actively involved in the political sphere from what we could call the religious left.

Part of the function of icons is for private devotional purposes. Early in the church's history, icons made it easier for worshipers to understand biblical themes and stories, as they could not read. Icons also create an atmosphere that enhances the worship and act as constant reminders of the divine.

I think by even President Bush's own standards, the themes that he used in the campaign and after, he hasn't measured up,

I think every writer has a book that haunts them, and on some level, every book you write is a reaction to it. 'Lolita' is that book for me. Nabokov's love of wordplay, descriptive detail, artfully complex plots, and his themes of obsession and lost love, are inspiring.

I'm still searching and I'm sure there are a lot many more Western operas with Indian themes that have faded into history,

I think the Republicans have shown us that they're corrupt, more important lately, they've show us how incompetent (they are) and how they have been divided. I think those are important themes and strategies for us as we go forward.

I think there's a lesson there for all story-tellers. It's the same human themes and values from Day One. They're still exactly the same. You just play with them in different settings, change them around to entertain the audience today.

Overall themes are not very new and give the customer little reason to shop this early in the season. Warmer weather in certain regions is helping but generally this is not a good sign for spring.

I think one of the themes that he emphasized in many ways ... was that we need to spend time reflecting ethical implications of our work, and bring the traditions and wisdom of the Church into greater conversation with the advances in knowledge and understanding. He was saying that Notre Dame has a very distinct role and its voice needs to be heard.

I think today record companies are looking for a single, rather than here's an album we made that tries to have some flow to it, tries to weave common threads and themes to it.

It goes without saying that a good Catholic novel should be good craftsmanship, good writing skills. The creative person must always be engaged in the long labor of perfecting the tools of his art. Yet the work itself need not be explicitly evangelical in its themes and plots.

Transparency, sunshine, disclosure are recurring themes in the conversations that I am having with my colleagues. I think people are in general agreement that names ought to be associated with earmarks that are funded.

Tribeca Film Festival Doha will promote Middle Eastern themes and filmmakers, but not exclusively. Approximately 40 films will be presented at the new Museum of Islamic Art and in cinemas across Doha. Innovative work by established filmmakers will be shown alongside the debuts of newly discovered directing talents.

You know, a vampire book is not a book to be the vehicle for big themes and stuff, where sometimes when you're dealing with art or the life of Christ or the oeuvre of Shakespeare, you know, it's a little more ambitious.

We made a promise to ourselves at the beginning of the process that we weren't going to put any of our own politics, our own messages or our own themes into these movies. What we were trying to do was to analyze what was important to Tolkien and to try to honor that. In a way, we were trying to make these films for him, not for ourselves.

We must keep to the orientation of serving the people, and socialism, and the principle of letting 100 flowers bloom and a 100 schools of thought contend and highlight the themes of the times while encouraging diversity,

We really like LSI Logic as one of the semiconductor picks. They have a broad exposure to consumer electronics, to digital cameras, to networking, to a lot of real important growth themes in the economy.

There are places not only with adult themes or a range of things like that -- I mean, put that aside for a second -- but just things where you go, 'Can you do that on TV?'

There is more diversity in this year's promotional schedule than ever before. While there are a ton of new things each night at the park, fans will be happy to see many of traditional entertainers and themes return, too.

We'll take three themes from the audience, then make up something on the spot. We'll stray a little bit from the flamenco theme, but it's a lot of fun.

We like Sun. It's another gorilla in the space. And I think Sun has been very affective in moving to other areas including storage, which I think is one of the themes that we have in our technology fund.

Too many politicians are shifting the critical themes of our national conversations from a 'big ideas' American Brand Platform to narrowly focused, polarizing sound bites that put party philosophy before what used to be heralded as the common good. These ideas, more often than not, divide us rather than serve to bind us.

We were delighted to find out that here was someone in the US who was exploring the same themes as us, in terms of diaspora, culture, cultural negotiations and identity.

We're seeing a nice handful of earnings today. That is going to be the driver. The other driver, or the thing that's not going to hold us back this quarter, and I would argue has held us back the last three quarters, is the consensus is the Fed is done for the year, ... We don't have a credit tightening cycle to go through and we're seeing terrific earnings. So I would argue that the focus returns now to earnings growth, revenue growth, the strength of corporate America and not necessarily the macro-economic themes like monetary policy which have been on the forefront for the last couple of quarters.

While many of my musicals deal with big themes and ideas, I don't intentionally go looking to write shows like that. A story will interest me, and then somewhere along the way, I discover that hidden inside are these epic themes.

We explicitly asked people not to submit divisive themes at cabinet.

This suggests that there are common themes responsible for the virulence of influenza viruses, ... In the case of these genes, we have a new target for the development of new antiviral drugs aimed at decreasing the virulence of highly pathogenic influenza viruses.

Dickens writes such brilliant characters and stories, and his themes and social commentary are still so relevant. I think that's why he's still so loved today.

What Republicans need to do is to go back to their roots - starting with Lincoln - and remind the nation that they are the party of national growth, racial equality and unity of purpose. These Lincolnian themes will serve Republicans - and the nation - much better than becoming the party on the lookout for the supposed rat head of higher taxes.

I start with a fragment of narrative, or a character, something that seems to have resonance for me and which allows me to explore the kinds of themes I'm interested in.

The themes have to do with immigration, our past, and are we guilty when we're 6 years old, ... For me, the big subject is not what my husband in the film (Daniel Auteuil) has done as a child, but in not recognizing his fault, he's damaged someone's life. The theme is universal; it doesn't just belong to the French-Algerian past, but triggers something we all can share.

The themes in WordPress drive a lot of design trends. It democratizes design... You make a theme, and suddenly it's on hundreds and thousands of sites.

The themes that make one laugh always stem from poverty, hunger, misery, old age, sickness, and death. These are the themes that make Italians laugh, anyway.

The themes Tyler Perry presents resonate very strongly with the black community. It reminds me of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding.' It has elements of comedy and drama and community that just definitely works.

The Soviet Union, which has complained recently about alleged anti-Soviet themes in American advertising, lodged an official protest this week against the Ford Motor Company's new campaign: 'Hey you stinking fat Russian, get off my Ford Escort.'

These athletes embody the Olympic values of teamwork and commitment to excellence, which are integral themes of the Earn Your Stripes program. Not everyone can be an Olympic athlete, but we can all set goals and work hard to be our best.