August 2: Notable Births, with Quotes

Explore memorable and revealing quotes from public figures, past and present, who were born on August 2.

Wes Craven, director (August 2, 1939–August 30, 2015)

“Now I know most of the major guys and girls who make horror films and they are a jolly bunch. We’ve all talked about it amongst ourselves and we were scared in school or bullied or whatever, or had scary fathers. It’s partially a way to immune yourself from terror and fear. And I’m sure there is a certain amount of anger and even rage in being raised in a way that says half of the great sources of inspiration and joy in life are sins and you burn in hell forever. I’m sure that had done a lot of psychic damage.” —Wes Craven
Abad-Santos, Alex. “The final interview Wes Craven gave is a fantastic look at how he saw his art.” Vox, September 3, 2015, https://www.vox.com/2015/9/3/9255383/craven-final-interview.

“I grew up in the Baptist Church, so no listening to records or watching movies, along with alcohol and dancing and everything else. Disney films, those were OK, that was the one exception. So I saw every Disney film that came out and at first I wanted to be a Disney animator.” —Wes Craven
Stratford, Jennifer Juniper. “Wes Craven: One Last Scream.” The Front, https://thefront.tv/read/wes-craven-one-last-scream/.

Peter O’Toole, actor (August 2, 1932–December 14, 2013)

“I usually do films that are literate and literate authors use history as a source. It is true. If you look at any film I have made from ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ on down, Robert Bolt is a playwright, Harry Kurnitz was a playwright, Goldman is a playwright, Anouilh is a playwright, Peter Barnes is a playwright.” —Peter O’Toole
Buck, Joan. “New Again: Peter O’Toole.” Interview, April 5, 2017, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/new-again-peter-otoole.

“The name ‘character parts’ is totally meaningless. The French put it better: acteur, comedien. I’m a comedien. It doesn’t mean I think I am the character I’m playing; it means I think that character is me. I take it over. I pretend that Henry II is me. The Earl of Gurney is me.” —Peter O’Toole
Buck, Joan. “New Again: Peter O’Toole.” Interview, April 5, 2017, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/new-again-peter-otoole.

James Baldwin, writer and activist (August 2, 1924–December 1, 1987)

“Given the conditions in this country to be a black writer was impossible. When I was young, people thought you were not so much wicked as sick, they gave up on you. My father didn’t think it was possible—he thought I’d get killed, get murdered. He said I was contesting the white man’s definitions, which was quite right. But I had also learned from my father what he thought of the white man’s definitions.” —James Baldwin
Elgrably, Jordan. “James Baldwin, The Art of Fiction No. 78.” The Paris Review, Spring 1984, https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2994/the-art-of-fiction-no-78-james-baldwin.

“When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know. The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But something forces you to anyway.” —James Baldwin
Elgrably, Jordan. “James Baldwin, The Art of Fiction No. 78.” The Paris Review, Spring 1984, https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2994/the-art-of-fiction-no-78-james-baldwin.

Shimon Peres, former prime minister of Israel (August 2, 1923–September 28, 2016)

“From my earliest youth, I have known that while one is obliged to plan with care the stages of one’s journey, one is entitled to dream, and keep dreaming, of its destination. A man may feel as old as his years, yet as young as his dreams.” —Shimon Peres
Peres, Shimon. “Shimon Peres Nobel Lecture.” The Nobel Prize, 1994, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1994/peres/lecture/.

“I was born in a small Jewish town in White Russia. Nothing Jewish now remains of it. From my youngest childhood I related to my place of birth as a mere way station. My family’s dream, and my own, was to live in Israel, and our eventual voyage to the port of Jaffa was like making a dream come true.” —Shimon Peres
Peres, Shimon. “Shimon Peres Nobel Lecture.” The Nobel Prize, 1994, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1994/peres/lecture/.

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