I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.
Everything ordinary has the potential to be extraordinary.
Is this not true--That in proportion to the value of their estates the extremely wealthy pay far less taxes than those of moderatemeans? Compare the amount paid by millionaires with the amount paid by ordinary citizens. I believe that in proportion to their estates they pay less than half as much as ordinary citizens, whereas they ought to pay more.
Every single ordinary person has an extraordinary story.
One of the things that really fascinates me about movies is that they make seemingly ordinary moments be filled with some curiosity or some energy or some mystery.
Men of genius are often considered superstitious, but the fact is, the fineness of their nerve renders them more alive to the supernatural than ordinary men.
I tend to find the ecstasy hidden in ordinary joys because I did not expect those joys to be ordinary to me.
Even the most ordinary life is a mystery if you look close enough.
The movement of comets is part of the ordinary works of nature which, without regard to the happiness or misery of mankind, are transported from one part of the heavens to another by virtue of the general laws of motion.
What is particularly intriguing, in fact, is that whereas many peoples tend to locate this experience (of the sacred) in certain unusual, if not 'supernatural' moments and circumstances. . . the Oriental focus is upon mystery in the most obvious, ordinary, mundane-the most natural-situations of life.
There were a couple of times, leading up to shooting [Ordinary World], where I was like, "Oh, my god, what did I get myself into? Hopefully, I don't ruin this guy's precious script. " And then, after a couple of days of shooting, I started getting in the groove of it and it was really fun. I love being a rookie at stuff. It makes it feel vital. I love doing things I've never done before, and I love making stuff.
God is still in the process of dispensing gifts, and He uses ordinary individuals like us to develop those gifts in other people
The shock, the power of an ordinary life. It is a thing you could not invent with banks of computers in a dust-free room.
It seems to me that [my films] are talking about very simple and, I hope, universal feelings. And at the same time, even though they are set in a very weird world with elements that are irrational, at the same time, it's very close to an ordinary world. And I like to have this third feeling of mystery.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.
God is what man finds that is divine in himself. It is the best way man can behave in the ordinary occasions of life, and the farthest point to which man can stretch himself.
If the ordinary wage-earner worked four hours a day, there would be enough for everybody and no unemployment -- assuming a certain very moderate amount of sensible organization. This idea shocks the well-to-do, because they are convinced that the poor would not know how to use so much leisure. In America men often work long hours even when they are well off; such men, naturally, are indignant at the idea of leisure for wage-earners, except as the grim punishment of unemployment; in fact, they dislike leisure even for their sons.
Supposing that originally there was nothing but one creator, how could ordinary binary sexual relations come into being?
Ordinary life bypassed me, but I also bypassed it. It couldn't have been any other way. Conventional life and conventional people are not for me.
Most Russians don't treat the government, or those in power, as something close to them. They don't believe that they, as ordinary people, are able to change the development of things. That's why they have a very specific ironic sentiment towards power and the figures that represent it. I wanted to translate this irony into the cinematic language.