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Art & Creativity Quote by Steven Spielberg

"I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's certainly worth a try"

About this Quote

Spielberg opens by puncturing the most seductive fantasy about art: that a film can march into history and broker peace where diplomats can’t. The first sentence is a preemptive reality check, a refusal to cosplay as a statesman. It’s also a subtle act of self-protection. If you’re Spielberg weighing in on the Middle East, you know the blowback is coming from every direction; humility becomes both ethics and armor.

Then he pivots: “But it’s certainly worth a try.” That “but” carries the whole ideology. He’s not claiming art is policy; he’s claiming it’s pressure. Movies can’t redraw borders, but they can redraw the emotional map people use to justify borders. The subtext is Spielberg’s lifelong belief in mass storytelling as a civic technology: not a lecture, a shared experience that sneaks empathy past partisan defenses. “Worth” is doing important work, too. He frames artistic intervention as a bet with asymmetric upside: low chance of “solving” anything, high value in nudging the conversation, humanizing the abstract, complicating the slogans.

Context matters: Spielberg isn’t speaking as an avant-garde provocateur; he’s Hollywood’s consensus builder, a director whose brand is moral clarity delivered at scale. That makes his caution credible and his optimism legible. The line lands because it’s modest about outcomes while quietly ambitious about influence - an argument for art as incremental diplomacy, not miracle cure.

Quote Details

TopicPeace
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Spielberg, Steven. (2026, January 18). I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's certainly worth a try. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-dont-think-any-movie-or-any-book-or-any-work-of-17224/

Chicago Style
Spielberg, Steven. "I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's certainly worth a try." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-dont-think-any-movie-or-any-book-or-any-work-of-17224/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's certainly worth a try." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-dont-think-any-movie-or-any-book-or-any-work-of-17224/. Accessed 25 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg (born December 18, 1947) is a Director from USA.

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