Perseverance has kept me going over the years. Things rarely happen overnight. Filmmakers should be prepared for many years of hard work. The sheer toil can be healthy and exhilarating.
Werner HerzogRead
If you truly love film, I think the healthiest thing to do is not read books on the subject. I prefer the glossy film magazines with their big color photos and gossip columns, or the National Enquirer. Such vulgarity is healthy and safe.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Appreciating film should be an experience enriched by visual media rather than scholarly texts.
Werner Herzog suggests that to truly love film, one should immerse oneself in the visceral and visually stimulating aspects of cinema, such as colorful magazines and gossip, rather than getting bogged down in academic interpretations. He believes this approach promotes a healthier and more instinctual love for the art form, celebrating its entertainment value over scholarly critique.
Themes
FilmLoveArtMagazinesGossip
In practice
Example use cases
During a film appreciation class, I mentioned Herzog's perspective to highlight the importance of visual media in understanding cinema.
More from Werner Herzog
All quotes →Hold firm to your vision but don't be a tyrant on set.
Werner HerzogRead
For a moment the feeling crept over me that my work, my vision, is going to destroy me, and for a fleeting moment I let myself take a long, hard look at myself, something I would not otherwise do--out of instinct, on principle, out of self-preservation--look at myself with objective curiosity to see whether my vision has not destroyed me already. I found it comforting to note that I was still breathing.
Werner HerzogRead
Very often, footage that you have shot develops its own dynamic, it's own life, that is totally unexpected, and moves away from you're original intentions. And you have to acknowledge, yes, there is a child growing and developing and moving in a direction that isn't expected-accept it as it is and let it develop its own life.
Werner HerzogRead
Without dreams we would be cows in a field, and I don't want to live like that. I live my life or I end my life with this project.
Werner HerzogRead
Coincidences always happen if you keep your mind open, while storyboards remain the instruments of cowards who do not trust in their own imagination and who are slaves of a matrix If you get used to planning your shots based solely on aesthetics, you are never that far from kitsch.
Werner HerzogRead
Similar quotes
But if writing about people who are not yourself is illegitimate, then the only legitimate work is autobiography; and as a reader and a citizen, I don’t want to live in that world.
Katherine BooRead
Media gatekeepers - editors, publishers, film studios and the like - need to begin investing in talent behind the scenes, developing and resourcing marginalized voices to tell their own stories. At the end of the day, it's about the story and what will enable the audience to truly see, understand, and know the life and times of the subject.
Janet MockRead
The actor has to develop his body. The actor has to work on his voice. But the most important thing the actor has to work on is his mind.
Stella AdlerRead
My first two books are out of print and, okay, they can sleep there comfortably. It's early work, derivative work.
Mary OliverRead
Poetry is also the physical self of the poet, and it is impossible to separate the poet from his poetry.
Salvatore QuasimodoRead
The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead