Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.
Interpretation
Creating a film is a challenging and chaotic process, but achieving success brings immense joy.
In this quote, Stanley Kubrick compares the difficulty of directing a film to the absurdity of writing a profound literary work in a hectic environment, illustrating the chaos and challenges inherent in the creative process. However, he emphasizes that when one finally achieves artistic success, the resultant joy is unparalleled, highlighting the rewarding nature of creative endeavors despite their inherent struggles.
In practice
During a film festival, to emphasize the creative process involved in filmmaking.
The reality of the final moment, just before shooting [the scene], is so powerful that all previous analysis must yield before the impressions you receive under these circumstances, and unless you use this feedback to your positive advantage, unless you adjust to it, adapt to it and accept the sometimes terrifying weaknesses it can expose, you can never realize the most out of your film.
Because I direct films, I have to live in a major English-speaking production center. That narrows it down to three places: Los Angeles, New York and London. I like New York, but it's inferior to London as a production center. Hollywood is best, but I don't like living there.
I've never achieved spectacular success with a film. My reputation has grown slowly. I suppose you could say that I'm a successful filmmaker-in that a number of people speak well of me. But none of my films have received unanimously positive reviews, and none have done blockbuster business.
A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.
The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.
The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it's simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves.
To a degree, the Greek and Roman mythological heroes are just the first superheroes. They appeal to children for much the same reason. These gods and heroes may have powers, but they get angry and they do the wrong thing. They are human too.
I start to think, and then I sink_x000D_ _x000D_ Into the paper like I was ink_x000D_ _x000D_ When I'm writing, I'm trapped in between the lines_x000D_ _x000D_ I escape when I finish the rhyme.
Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.
My business is to be talented, that is, to be capable of selecting the important moments from the trivial ones. . . . It's about time for writers - particularly those who are genuine artists - to recognize that in this world you cannot figure out everything. Just have a writer who the crowds trust be courageous enough and declare that he does not understand everything, and that alone will represent a major contribution to the way people think, a long leap forward.
If an essay has a 'motive,' it is linked more to happenstance and opportunity than to the driven will. A genuine essay is not a doctrinaire tract or a propaganda effort or a broadside.
I think classical ballet dancers dance on pointe because they're simultaneously touching the earth and reaching up to the skies
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