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.
Sometimes female characters start out as the wife or girlfriend, but then I realize, 'No, she's the book,' and she becomes a main character. I surrender the book to her.
Unlike some of my peers, I haven't really hit a writer's block. When I hit a block I just paint, which is an old crop rotation trick.
I paint what I see and not what others like to see.
The thing I love about music is that you can take things that are painful, deep things that hurt you, and you can turn them into something beautiful.
I keep the drafts of each poem in color-coded folders. I pick up the folders according to how I feel about that color that day.
When you're writing, you're conjuring. It's a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you're inviting into the room.
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