A lot of the distinctions that we make between drama and documentary are spurious. We're deeply confused about these issues. About the difference between the two, about where documentary ends and drama begins. Errol Morris More Quotes by Errol Morris More Quotes From Errol Morris I like to point out that people very often confuse the idea that truth is subjective with the fact that truth is perishable. Errol Morris factspeopleideas Finding truth involves some kind of activity. As I like to point out, truth isn't handed to you on a platter. It's not something that you get at a cafeteria, where they just put it on your plate. It's a search, a quest, an investigation, a continual process of looking at and looking for evidence, trying to figure out what the evidence means. Errol Morris queststryingmean There is a documentary element in my films, a very strong documentary element, but by documentary element, I mean an element that's out of control, that's not controlled by me. And that element is the words, the language that people use, what they say in an interview. They're not written, not rehearsed. It's spontaneous, extemporaneous material. People Errol Morris strongmeanpeople Writing is a form of talking, although writing is such an odd thing in and of itself. People go about it in such different ways. Errol Morris writingtalkingpeople My stuff always starts with interviews. I start interviewing people, and then slowly but surely, a movie insinuates itself. Errol Morris interviewsstuffpeople I'm really interested in self-deception. Really interested in how people live in bubble universes. How people can fail to see the seemingly obvious. Errol Morris deceptionselfpeople If you want to trick someone with a photograph, there are lots of easy ways to do it. You don't need Photoshop. You don't need sophisticated digital photo-manipulation. You don't need a computer. All you need to do is change the caption. Errol Morris wantwayneeds Part of the mystery of any given photograph is the fact that it was taken at a certain time and in a certain place and time keeps moving on. A photograph might be a moment in time preserved, but the world continues to change around it. Errol Morris takenworldmoving If you asked me what makes the world go round, I would say self-deception. Self-deception allows us to create a consistent narrative for ourselves that we actually believe. I’m not saying that the truth doesn’t matter. It does. But self-deception is how we survive. Errol Morris deceptionselfbelieve The proper route to an understanding of the world is an examination of our errors about it. Errol Morris errorsunderstandingworld The very idea of photography is as Oliver Wendell Holmes said in the 19th century, "it's a mirror with a memory." Errol Morris mirrorsphotographymemories They say seeing is believing, but the opposite is true. Believing is seeing. Errol Morris seeing-is-believingoppositesbelieve People think in narratives - in beginnings, middles and ends. The danger when you edit something too severely is that it no longer makes sense; worse still, it leaves people with the disquieting impression that something is being hidden. Errol Morris narrativepeoplethinking Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it without a sense of ironic futility. Errol Morris infancy-ishistorypast Truth exists independent of style. It involves all kinds of issues. Properly considered, it's a quest, a pursuit. To say that vérité is more truthful than something that is narrated is just misplaced. Completely wrong. And the fact that people still talk about it as though they're really talking about something... it puzzles me greatly. A moment of reflection about it tells you that it makes no sense! Errol Morris independentreflectionpeople What's interesting is that Citizen Kane was meant as an anti-fascist/anti-capitalist melodrama and for Donald Trump it becomes just another kind of misogynistic claim that misses the point. Errol Morris citizensmissinginteresting The imprimatur of truthfulness does not guarantee truthfulness. People should know better. But they don't. Errol Morris guaranteesdoepeople People like nonfiction presented to them in a certain way, so that they don't have to think about whether it's true or not. They like it to have that imprimatur of respectability, of genuineness. Errol Morris peoplewaythinking The smarter people I know declined to watch the most recent debate [with Donald Trump]. Errol Morris debatewatchespeople What is it that angers us?... We have been tricked. In essence, we have been lied to. The problem is not that the photograph has been manipulated, but that we have been manipulated by the photograph. Errol Morris liedproblemessence
