I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that the grandeur of a person's vision or ideas can be diminished by the limitations imposed by external factors, such as the medium or context.
Billy Wilder's quote, 'I am big. It's the pictures that got small,' reflects the idea that an individual's potential and greatness may be undermined by the constraints of their environment or the perceptions of others. It speaks to the tension between one's true self or capabilities and the restrictions that society or circumstances can impose, particularly in the realm of artistic expression and creativity. Wilder emphasizes the importance of recognizing that greatness is inherent, while sometimes the platforms or formats we use may not do justice to it.
In practice
During a speech about innovation in film, you might use this quote to discuss the challenges creators face.
Film’s thought of as a director’s medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It’s that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot-the telephone book? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they’ve had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.
What critics call dirty in our pictures, they call lusty in foreign films.
I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.
Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.
Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
I'd worship the ground you walked on if only you walked in a better neighborhood.
I think it's great when stories are dark and strange and weirdly personal.
A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.
Negatives are the notebooks, the jottings, the false starts, the whims, the poor drafts, and the good draft but never the completed version of the work The print and a proper one is the only completed photograph, whether it is specifically shaded for reproduction, or for a museum wall.
I'm an actor; I have made my living by acting, and I almost think I owe it to the public to express my feelings and not as a character on a screen but as myself.
My feeling is that poetry is also a healing process, and then when a person tries to write poetry with depth or beauty, he will find himself guided along paths which will heal him, and this is more important, actually, than any of the poetry he writes.
An artist observes, selects, guesses, and synthesizes.
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