Haris Pasovic Quotes

"There's no real theatre without taking risks."

"Art can articulate new ideas."

"Art is a primal need - even under siege, especially under siege."

"The meaning of art in a time of suffering, a time of war, is much more intense. People are more focused."

"My company is called East-West Theatre precisely because Sarajevo is this city on the border between East and West, the place where the Great Mosque and the Catholic Cathedral and the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral stand almost within touching distance of each other."

"In war, everything changes. You are very selective of what you do because everything you do can be the last thing you do in your life."

"The U.S. Declaration of Independence enshrines the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Alas, that is not the case everywhere in the world."

"Culture is a part of basic human nature, of deep humanity."

"Life is not just food, it's something spiritual."

"People have to have food for their souls."

"The industry of political conflict is the biggest industry in Bosnia, and it is still not exhausted. What is needed is to replace these two industries - the industry of political conflict, the industry of human rights - with normal, creative walks of life."

"I grew up in adoration of writers like Hemingway, George Orwell, Anna Akhmatova, and that has always been my idea about the artist - that you have to be a brave and freedom-loving person."

"I think we are slowly killing liberty, creativity, intelligent thinking; it's as if we are being led into a world that is like a huge shopping centre, with a sort of anaesthesia about everything except the choice of goods in front of us."

"Theatre, for me, is about providing to the audience a new and exciting experience."

"Art has to be able to match life, to respond to the ever-changing forms of the world, to electrify the audience."

"We need the daring visions. To go to theatre must be different than to go to shopping. We adventure together, we journey through the mindful and emotional landscapes, we create together an event, unique and unrepeatable."

"My theatre is not a conventional one. It is bold, serious, funny, confronting. It is anything but boring."

"Football is probably the most democratic human activity. It belongs to everyone... to poor and rich, illiterate and educated, to all races, cultures, and nations."

"'Hamlet' is a universal story that concerns us all. These issues do not concern only Muslims, but all people equally, showing that we all share the same problems regardless of religion, nation and culture."

"Art is freedom. If we don't have that element, we don't feel human anymore. Art is not decoration or a function. Before all that, art is art. This connection to meaning - our inner, intuitive knowledge - is something."

"The more film festivals, theatrical shows, and music performances and visual arts we have, the less chances there are for war. Art is hope, and it is found in hope, and that's why we need to share our experiences and cherish art."

"Yes, I am mad - like the Marquis de Sade was mad, like Giordano Bruno was mad, like Antonin Artaud was mad."

"To come to the theatre, people have to make arrangements, change their clothes, find a babysitter, find a parking space - and they don't come after hard work to hear a lecture."

"The 21st century is significantly different from the 20th century. The old models will not hold anymore. More and more, we are one people on Earth. We need to share our problems."

"My company, East West, was founded on the premise that people need to group together and not be xenophobic, parochial, or provincial."

"War and peace-making, human rights, humanitarian issues have become industries, but nobody looks closely at human greed, at the arms industry and the manufacture of landmines. Art has to take a wider view. The problems of Ireland are my problems, too."

"I work in theater, so I am always working in front of empty chairs. They represent a future presence. They are never just chairs."

"We realised that art, theatre, and music in Sarajevo were resistance at the deepest level."

"I learned a lot about Ottoman court, and it was very Shakespearian in essence. Stories like the one in 'Hamlet' did happen several times in the 500 years of Ottoman history."

"Every time has its own 'Hamlet.'"