Peter Greenaway quotes - page 10

In the film The Belly of an Architect, an architect from Chicago organizes an exhibition of his favourite architect Etienne-Lous Boullée (1728-1799). I wrote an account of this hypothetical exhibition as though it had been seen by an unlikely Boullée contemporary -- Jane Austen (1775-1817). She made a prim but perceptive account of her progress through the corridors and halls of the Vittoriano in the centre of Rome -- a building constructed long after both of these eminent personages were dead. (Peter Greenaway)
A woman materialises behind Prospero -- leaning lightly on the back of his chair -- she is alternately a Titianesque nude and then the Vesalius figure -- flayed ... she leans lightly over and kisses Prospero on the cheek. The kiss leaves a blood-red mark on his withered cheek. Prospero shivers. View quote
Peter Greenaway
One [film] is based on the Medea myth about a woman who kills her own child -- The Love of Ruins. It is almost a technical exercise to see if I can convince an audience or make an audience sympathetic to a woman who kills her own child. View quote
Peter Greenaway
As author in control of the plot I can choose and dictate the fall-out of events from any number of infinite possibilities -- which is a very volatile state of affairs, suggesting the ephemerality of fictional narrative. I can choose to have seven characters and kill six of them off in the first five minutes. I can have seventy characters and squash them under a fallen rock, make them copulate with beasts, sit them on the moon or turn their hair white. This casual condition of authorship is irresponsible. View quote
Peter Greenaway
To a man of honour that is no choice. View quote
Peter Greenaway
Smut is a target for reconstructed cricketing accidents -- he is the Cricket Saint Sebastian. View quote
Peter Greenaway
In the game of Dawn Card-Castles, fifty-two playing cards are stacked up into a castle in a draught-free space: the player can determine the dreams of the next night if he awakes before the castle collapses. Those players who wish to dream of Romance build their castle with the seven of hearts. View quote
Peter Greenaway
Farewells can be both beautiful and despicable. Saying farewell to one who is loved is very complicated. View quote
Peter Greenaway
I married. I became a wife. I acquired a husband. I had a ceremonial wedding in style. Whichever way you say it -- it was bound to end badly. View quote
Peter Greenaway
Counting is the most simple and primitive of narratives -- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -- a tale with a beginning, a middle and an end and a sense of progression -- arriving at a finish of two digits -- a goal attained, a dénouement reached. View quote
Peter Greenaway
What is your favorite book? (Peter Greenaway)
The film begins with a visual list of eight and a half Japanese Pachinko Parlours filmed in several Japanese cities -- Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto. View quote
Peter Greenaway
What good are all these books to you? You can't eat them! How can they make you happy? View quote
Peter Greenaway
She picks up the baby and contemplates the Bonsai-bush, and, as we watch, in the growing half-dark, the Bonsai-bush flowers. On the black-and-white film, the thousands of flower-petals blush a deep red. View quote
Peter Greenaway
Now, at this very minute, another thing is happening which we cannot hear because most paintings do not have a sound-track. Peter is inventing the word "simony" to explain ecclesiastical purchase-power, for which, since his Church later exercised it so expertly, Simon Magus ought to be revered as a patron not a rogue. View quote
Peter Greenaway
Are these clues? Which ones are important? Which ones are incidental? Which ones are circumstantial? View quote
Peter Greenaway
What else could there be? View quote
Peter Greenaway
He spoilt it -- he spoke. View quote
Peter Greenaway
How safe are we here? View quote
Peter Greenaway
Does Albert read? View quote
Peter Greenaway
Only from bad books. (Peter Greenaway)
It can hardly be said that Greenaway is unaware of his demoniac cleverness, but he unearths the nuggets buried in his work in a spirit of generosity. They are not so much possessions to be admired as gifts to be shared. View quote
Peter Greenaway
Men are so shit scared of female activities, especially if they are clandestine. View quote
Peter Greenaway
I suppose I have a concern for this extraordinary, beautiful, amazing, exciting, taxonomically brilliant world that we live in, but we keep fucking it up all the time. View quote
Peter Greenaway
I admit that death is not just about you, it's also about the people who love you. View quote
Peter Greenaway