Ken Burns Quotes

“The worst film of a good director is better than the best film of a bad director.”
― Tom Roston, Ken Burns: The Kindle Singles Interview

“There is nothing new under the sun. What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.”
― Tom Roston, Ken Burns: The Kindle Singles Interview

“And if you tell a good story, it feels is. A couple looked at this film and said it was the first time that they had ever felt that as they watched something, that they felt as if what they were watching was happening now rather than in the past. And that is the highest compliment someone could ever pay. They might say it was the greatest documentary ever, but it wouldn’t be the same thing as it felt as if it was happening now. There was a familiarity. And that is what we wanted. We wanted to remove the distance between us.”
― Tom Roston, Ken Burns: The Kindle Singles Interview

“The arrogance of the present is that we think we know more than the past.”
― Tom Roston, Ken Burns: The Kindle Singles Interview

“You and I are not getting out of this alive. An exception will not be made in our case so that we’ll live forever. So what are you going to do with that? Are you going to curl up into a fetal position? Sure. It’s a reasonable existential response to that reality. Or what do you do? You make art, you make music, you have ideas, you come to people, you talk, you make films, you write, whatever it is. You know what it’s like to be at a party and to be talking to someone and looking beyond them. You’re not present. We’re human beings, not human doings. And I think that is the great challenge. That we’re not getting out of this alive.”
― Tom Roston, Ken Burns: The Kindle Singles Interview

“This is not a feel-good thing. This is about “Shit happens, and we are obligated to find a way out.” It’s optimistic in the sense that it is human to try to overcome tragedy.”
― Tom Roston, Ken Burns: The Kindle Singles Interview