I don't believe that you can talk about a photograph being true or false. I don't think such a claim has any meaning. 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 facts people ideas 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 quests trying mean 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 strong mean people 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 writing talking people My stuff always starts with interviews. I start interviewing people, and then slowly but surely, a movie insinuates itself. Errol Morris interviews stuff people 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 deception self people 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 want way needs 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 taken world moving 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 confused drama two 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 deception self believe The proper route to an understanding of the world is an examination of our errors about it. Errol Morris errors understanding world The very idea of photography is as Oliver Wendell Holmes said in the 19th century, "it's a mirror with a memory." Errol Morris mirrors photography memories They say seeing is believing, but the opposite is true. Believing is seeing. Errol Morris seeing-is-believing opposites believe 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 narrative people thinking Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it without a sense of ironic futility. Errol Morris infancy-is history past 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 independent reflection people 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 citizens missing interesting The imprimatur of truthfulness does not guarantee truthfulness. People should know better. But they don't. Errol Morris guarantees doe people 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 people way thinking The smarter people I know declined to watch the most recent debate [with Donald Trump]. Errol Morris debate watches people
