Terrence Malick > Quotes

“The nuns taught us there are two ways through life, the way of Nature and the way of Grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow.

Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.

Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things.”
― Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

“Help each other. Love everyone. Every leaf. Every ray of light. Forgive.”
― Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

“Where is it that we were together? Who were you that I lived with? The brother. The friend. Darkness, light. Strife and love. Are they the workings of one mind? The features of the same face? Oh, my soul. Let me be in you now. Look out through my eyes. Look out at the things you made. All things shining.”
― Terrance Malick

“And love is smiling through all things.”
― Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

“I will be true to you. Whatever comes.”
― Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

“Toscanini once recorded a piece sixty five times. You know what he said when he finished? "It could be better." Think about it.”
― Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

“You imagine that you worship truth. Yet by yourself you cannot be truthful even for an hour. You move within me, like a fish in the sea, and still you can't discover me...Look in the blade of your knife.

In the whole of time, I've blinked but once. I am those eyes that gaze at you without ceasing, even if I am not before you. I read what is within you -- know you better than your closest friend. Before my gaze your heart lies open; from me no thought is hidden. You wonder what I see. Like a child, you imagined you could hide. I bring you to the light. I cause you to stand alone.”
― Terrence Malick

“Life goes on. people pass along. nothing stays the same. the lord gives and the lord takes away. thats the way he is...!”
― Terrence Malick

“The nuns taught us there were two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow.”
― Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

“One day, while taking a look at some vistas in Dad's stereopticon, it hit me that I was just this little girl, born in Texas, whose father was a sign painter and who had only just so many years to live.”
― Terrence Malick

“What we do, is just create - sympathy. We create-- we create admirers. We don't create followers. Christ's life is a demand. You don't want to be reminded of it. So we don't have to see what happens to the truth. A darker time is coming - when men will be more clever. They won't fight the truth, they'll just ignore it. I paint their comfortable Christ, with a halo over his head. How can I show what I haven't lived? Someday I might have the courage to venture, not yet. Someday I'll - I'll paint the true Christ.”
― Terrence Malick

“What we do, is just create - sympathy. We create-- we create admirers. We don't create followers. Christ's life is a demand. You don't want to be reminded of it. So we don't have to see what happens to the truth. A darker time is coming - when men will be more clever. They won't fight the truth, they'll just ignore it. I paint their comfortable Christ, with a halo over his head. How can I show what I haven't lived? Someday I might have the courage to venture, not yet. Someday I'll - I'll paint the true Christ.

I paint the tombs of the prophets. I help people look up from those pews and dream. They look up and they imagine if they lived back in Christ time they wouldn't have done what the others did. They wouldn't have murdered those whom we now adore. I paint all this suffering, but, I don't suffer myself. I make a living of it.”
― Terrence Malick