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Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece QUOTES

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece QUOTES

1 " Throughout, Kubrick and Clarke remained locked in dialogue. One strategy they’d agreed on in advance was that their story’s metaphysical and even mystical elements had to be earned through absolute scientific-technical realism. 2001’s space shuttles, orbiting stations, lunar bases, and Jupiter missions were thoroughly grounded in actual research and rigorously informed extrapolation, much of it provided by leading American companies then also busy providing technologies and expertise to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

2 " In a 1972 story titled “The Big Space Fuck,” Kurt Vonnegut names his spaceship with “eight hundred pounds of freeze-dried jizzum in its nose” the Arthur C. Clarke, “in honor of a famous space pioneer.” Its mission is to impregnate the Andromeda Galaxy. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

3 " As for HAL singing “Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two),” this, too, was Clarke’s contribution, including the song’s gradual devolution to near incomprehensibility at the end. The idea originated in a visit he’d made in 1962 to Bell Laboratories, where he’d heard John Kelly’s voice-synthesizer experiments with an IBM 7094 mainframe, which had coaxed the machine to sing Harry Dacre’s 1892 marriage proposal—the first song ever sung by a computer. "

― Michael Benson, , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

4 " 2001’s production notes contain a number of startlingly prescient glimpses of the world we live in today. As of mid-1965, approximately the same time that the US Department of Defense was conceiving of the internet’s direct predecessor, ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), Kubrick’s intrepid band of futurists had seemingly already visualized important aspects of the new technology’s implications. One document sent from Tony Masters to Roger Caras on June 29 listed matter-of-factly—under a letterhead replete with the roaring MGM lion—nine props that he asked Caras to help him with. Number one was “2001 newspaper to be read on some kind of television screen. Should be designed television screen shape; i.e., wider than it is high. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

5 " People who deal with Stanley and don’t know him perhaps don’t understand that he was an alien. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

6 " It being a good three decades before computer-generated imagery, detailed models would have to be constructed for all their exteriors. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

7 " When you do a science fiction film, it’s very difficult to discipline yourself to stay within reason. There are no limits, and you can go berserk. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

8 " Stan, I want you to know that I’m a very well-adjusted homosexual.”
“Yeah, I know,” responded Kubrick without missing a beat. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

9 " What we want is a smashing theme of mythic grandeur. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

10 " Forbes asked what kind of project he was thinking of doing next. Kubrick responded that he was looking into the possibility of doing a science fiction film.
“Oh, Stanley, for God’s sake!” Forbes exclaimed, turning. “Science fiction? "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

11 " Yes, I’d like to hear it, HAL. Sing it for me. "

― Michael Benson, , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

12 " If you can describe it, I can film it.” Though I managed to disprove this dictum, I must also admit that Stanley later filmed things I couldn’t possibly describe. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

13 " Ask not for whom the monolith tolls. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

14 " humanity’s propensity for error, every glass ever broken in all the Jewish weddings of history, a cymbal crash marking the death of God, a metaphorical token akin to the flash of insight produced by a Zen koan—and on and on.VI "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

15 " Seventeen aliens—featureless black pyramids—riding in an open car down Fifth Avenue, surrounded by Irish cops.” Although the form of what would eventually become 2001’s monolith hadn’t yet been established—and wouldn’t for more than a year after much shape-shifting—its color (black) and quality (featureless) had already emerged. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

16 " Kubrick told his visitors that, in his view, there were three factors to consider in every film: Was it interesting? Was it believable? And, was it beautiful or aesthetically superior? At least two of the three had to be in every shot of the film. He "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

17 " What great control! I reach for something, the movement begins in the very center of my body. I stand up, turn, and run—all the movement starts from my center. Moving this way does many things. It "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

18 " Kubrick had caught wind of Pahnke’s so-called Marsh Chapel Experiment, conducted in 1962 under the supervision of his thesis advisors, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert. The study was designed to see if hallucinogenic drugs, when taken in a religious setting such as a Boston University chapel, could induce religious experiences comparable to those recorded by the great mystics of history. Nine of the ten theology students participating reported that they had indeed experienced sensations indistinguishable from religious revelation. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

19 " Why’ve you got so many about surrealism, Dadaism?” “Well, one of the problems I’ve got on this film is to come up with convincing extraterrestrial landscapes,” said Kubrick, sitting down. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

20 " He proposed that they abandon their prior idea that the monolith (still called “the Cube” in the letter) should be seen overtly transmitting audiovisual lessons to the man-apes. "

― , Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece