One thing, however, I know with certainty: violence, or the direct threat of violence, of the kind we have seen in the past few days, is totally unjustified as a response to any published word or image.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
While we have entertained the contention that a deed may make more propaganda than hundreds of speeches, thousands of articles, and tens of thousands of pamphlets, we have held that an arbitrary act of violence will not necessarily have such an effect.
We try to show that violence has a consequence - when you create violence, it turns against you.
All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do.
Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.
Even in the most peaceful communities, an appetite for violence shows up in dreams, fantasies, sports, play, literature, movies and television. And, so long as we don't transform into angels, violence and the threat of violence - as in punishment and deterrence - is needed to rein in our worst instincts.
Violence and racism are bad. Whenever they occur they are to be condemned and we should not turn a blind eye to them.
We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn't have a sort of influence. It does.
Some of my films are known for the depiction of violence. I don't have anything to prove with that any more.
Violence commands both literature and life, and violence is always crude and distorted.
If there isn't at least the threat of violence in art, it tends to be kind of tiresome.