"I overheard the writer Geoffrey Wolff say 'No cheap tricks' to a group of writing students. That should go on a three-by-five card. I'd amend it a little to 'No tricks.' Period. I hate tricks. At the first sign of a trick or a gimmick in a piece of fiction, a cheap trick or even an elaborate trick, I tend to look for cover."

This is what Raymond Carver wrote in his essay: On Writing. I like the idea of writing down quotes on three-by-five cards. Quotes that comfort you and remind you of the reasons why you are doing your stuff. When you have wandered off track, you can look them up and they will punch you back to the path that you always meant to follow.

Maybe I will be able to say wise things in thirty years; leaning back in my armchair, looking back on a long career in movies... But as for now, I am a disoriented first timer, and the best I can do is to share the wisdom of others. I reveal my personal deck of three-by-fives...

“Make visible what, without you, might have never been seen.”–Robert Bresson

“If we don’t develop adequate images we will die out like dinosaurs.”–Werner Herzog

“The decline of the aperitif may well be one of the most depressing phenomena of our time.”–Luis Buñuel

“A masterpiece can never look like a masterpiece. It must be imperfect and full of mistakes, since it is the triumph of the mistakes that makes it a masterpiece.”–Jean Cocteau

“Honor thy mistake as a hidden intention.”–Brian Eno

“Ambition can be very evil.”–Jim Jarmusch

“This is the third time it’s happened to me—starting a film with the thought that it’s going to be amusing and realizing along the way that it will be saved only by its sadness.” –François Truffaut

“I am surprised that some critics say that my camera technique is old-fashioned, that I have not kept up with the times. What times? My technique is the outcome of thinking for myself, of my own logic and approach; it is not borrowed from what others are doing. If in art one must keep up with the times, then Rembrandt would be a back number compared to Van Gogh.”–Charlie Chaplin

“I played for a football team for years and when I would score I would never actually see the goal posts and the bar, yet somehow I knew where the goal was. If I had seriously started to think about what I was doing, my game would have crumbled in a split second and the ball would have been blocked by five players. It is the same with making a film. If you see something, you should not allow much time for structural deliberation. Just head into it physically, without fear.” –Werner Herzog

“Shooting. Put oneself into a state of intense ignorance and curiosity, and yet see things in advance.” –Robert Bresson

“I was taught to respect the good manners, and therefore I try to destroy them. It’s like when you are told: Wash your hands before you eat. In my films I have made a point of not washing my hands, but first examined what a hand is, and what soap is.” –Jean-Luc Godard

“The home is a place where things can go wrong.”
–David Lynch