“Often he was a joy, and you know, he was one of the few people I ever learned anything from.”
Werner Herzog (1942) German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director
Herzog on Herzog (2002), On Klaus Kinski
Source: The Runaway Queen
“Often he was a joy, and you know, he was one of the few people I ever learned anything from.”
Werner Herzog (1942) German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director
Herzog on Herzog (2002), On Klaus Kinski
Olivia Munn (1980) American actress, comedian, model, television personality and author
“Olivia Munn Unveils New Naked Anti-Fur Billboard In Los Angeles,” in PETA.org.uk (13 January 2012) https://www.peta.org.uk/media/news-releases/olivia-munn-unveils-new-naked-anti-fur-billboard-in-los-angeles/.
Thuy Trang (1973–2001) Vietnamese actress (1973-2001)
Thuy Trang Interview (Encyclopedia of Martial Arts: Hollywood Stars) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwNZAqDAFng&t=54s&ab_channel=DietColaTime (1995)
“I am a stranger. You do not need to lie to me or pretend. Only with friends do you need masks.”
David Gemmell book The King Beyond the Gate
Source: Drenai series, The King Beyond the Gate, Ch. 2
“You know, you don’t really need me. All you need to do is read your own books.”
P. L. Travers (1899–1996) Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist
The Paris Review interview (1982)
Context: I’ve always been interested in the Mother Goddess. Not long ago, a young person, whom I don’t know very well, sent a message to a mutual friend that said: “I’m an addict of Mary Poppins, and I want you to ask P. L. Travers if Mary Poppins is not really the Mother Goddess.” So, I sent back a message: “Well, I’ve only recently come to see that. She is either the Mother Goddess or one of her creatures — that is, if we’re going to look for mythological or fairy-tale origins of Mary Poppins.”
I’ve spent years thinking about it because the questions I’ve been asked, very perceptive questions by readers, have led me to examine what I wrote. The book was entirely spontaneous and not invented, not thought out. I never said, “Well, I’ll write a story about Mother Goddess and call it Mary Poppins.” It didn’t happen like that. I cannot summon up inspiration; I myself am summoned.
Once, when I was in the United States, I went to see a psychologist. It was during the war when I was feeling very cut off. I thought, Well, these people in psychology always want to see the kinds of things you’ve done, so I took as many of my books as were then written. I went and met the man, and he gave me another appointment. And at the next appointment the books were handed back to me with the words: “You know, you don’t really need me. All you need to do is read your own books.”
That was so interesting to me. I began to see, thinking about it, that people who write spontaneously as I do, not with invention, never really read their own books to learn from them. And I set myself to reading them. Every now and then I found myself saying, “But this is true. How did she know?” And then I realized that she is me. Now I can say much more about Mary Poppins because what was known to me in my blood and instincts has now come up to the surface in my head.
Tad Williams (1957) novelist
Source: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, To Green Angel Tower (1993), Part 2, Chapter 24, “The Graylands” (p. 540).
Dawud Wharnsby (1972) Canadian musician
"Education and The Working Man"
Blue Walls and The Big Sky (1995)
Context: Eating education is like eating Christmas pudding: Too much can make your stomach sore, too much can spoil your whole Christmas. Learning from a man who learned all he learned from another, can lead you to a safe place, but destroy your sense of wonder. Trapped inside a book, locked inside a lecture, when do you find the time to love and spend your days in forests? And when ideals are fleeting — tell me then who do you turn to? They prove to you that God is dead, but to them you’re just a number.
Linda Smith (1958–2006) comedian
Stand-up