The Director Quotes

“Times are always strange. Art is always out of place. Always unnecessary when it’s made. And later, when you look back, it’s the only thing that mattered.”
― Daniel Kehlmann, The Director

“What do I know? People were many things before the war, and then they were something completely different. I'm telling you, it's all mixed-up and jumbled.”
― Daniel Kehlmann, The Director

“The most important thing is not to stand out," said Professor Stelzner. "Not to say anything about the war, for example. Do you understand?”
― Daniel Kehlmann, The Director

“Tell it to someone who'll believe it. You've come home to the Reich. You want to make films. Not political films, but idealistic ones.
Artistic films. Sublime films. Films that touch the German hearts of good, deep, metaphysical people. Deep films for deep people! And that's what we want too. To oppose the American cheap commercial trash with a resounding no.”
― Daniel Kehlmann, The Director

“You misjudge the situation. I'm not arguing. If you had just the slightest idea what could be in store for you, you wouldn't even try. It is what it is, and I say what it is, and all you say here is: I'm sorry! And you say: Now I know better! And: I have recognized my mistakes. And I want to do my part to build a new Germany. Well?”
― Daniel Kehlmann, The Director

“The man with the moustache keeps wiping his face and shaking his head as if he himself were more surprised than horrified, as if his strongest feeling were still astonishment that such a thing is possible.
"Even after all these years in the Reich," he says, "after all the humiliations and persecutions, even after they took my house away from me and beat me up in the street and threw my two children out of school - after all that I still didn't expect something like this!”
― Daniel Kehlmann, The Director

“Do that to you? Ha! So much for gallantry. One must take life lightly, Mr. Pabst. It doesn't last long, and if it goes wrong, not so much is lost. And every bit of fun one has, every beautiful day, every—"
"Every man."
"Yes, every man, Mr. Pabst! And every woman! Everyone who gets naked and lies under a blanket with you and gives you pleasure and likes you for a little while is a stroke of luck to be celebrated. And then you move on. Otherwise it gets boring.”
― Daniel Kehlmann, The Director

“He bowed his head, adjusted his glasses, took the unlit cigarette out of his mouth, and shoved it in his breast pocket. She was sorry to have to talk to him like that, but there was one thing experience had taught her: directors didn't accept a gentle no, for the simple reason that people who accepted a gentle no never could have become directors.”
― Daniel Kehlmann, The Director

“At some point, you can’t take it anymore. When you fear the life you’re living more than death.”
― Daniel Kehlmann, The Director