My strength is with actors. I think I'm good at working with them to get the best performances, at seeing what it is that they have and that the story needs.
Sydney PollackRead
At every premiere, I stand in the back, I never sit, worrying. And then maybe I hear them laugh or whatever, and the muscles unclench a little. But always, I feel like it's a fluke, that I'll never be able to do it again.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses an artist's anxiety and fear of failure despite experiencing moments of success.
In this quote, filmmaker Sydney Pollack reveals a common struggle faced by artists: the fear of not being able to replicate past successes. Even when receiving positive feedback, such as laughter from an audience, there is an underlying tension and self-doubt that lingers, suggesting that the thrill of accomplishment may feel temporary and undeserved.
Themes
AnxietySuccessArtFearPerformance
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a discussion about the pressures artists face in the creative industry.
More from Sydney Pollack
All quotes →And I taught acting for years, and without knowing it that was the real thing that started bending me toward directing.
Sydney PollackRead
If you have a career like mine, which is so identified with Hollywood, with big studios and stars, you wonder if maybe you shouldn't go off and do what the world thinks of as more personal films with lesser-known people. But I think I've fooled everybody. I've made personal films all along. I just made them in another form.
Sydney PollackRead
It's my job to motivate the audience to believe. I have to get them to suspend their judgment in favor of involvement.
Sydney PollackRead
You hope that the responsibility of making movies will fall into the hands of essentially moral people.
Sydney PollackRead
Making a movie is a network of decisions that keep multiplying as you go. You leave a trail of decisions behind you, and that's how you start to see the shape of what you've done. When you get far enough, you turn around and say, 'Ha, that's the movie.' It's only then that you find out if it's going to work or not.
Sydney PollackRead
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