You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.
Elia KazanRead
A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.
Interpretation
A good director embraces uncertainty and spontaneity in the creative process.
Elia Kazan's quote emphasizes the importance of flexibility and creativity in directing. It suggests that a director's best work often emerges from being open to unexpected ideas and adapting to the dynamic conditions of film production, rather than strictly adhering to a preconceived plan.
In practice
In a speech at a film festival discussing creative processes.
You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.
Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?
I've come to believe that everything worth achieving is beyond one's capacity - or seems so at first. The thing is to persist, not back off, fight your fight, pay your dues, and carry on. Effort is all; continue and you may get there despite everything.
To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but it is bitter and unforgettable.
I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.
I would rather do what I did than crawl in front of a ritualistic Left and lie the way those other comrades did betray my own soul.
His belief in the power of music to convey ideas - not just entertain - has filtered down to musicians in every field, from alt-rock to hip-hop, from Bruce Springsteen and U2 to Arcade Fire and Kanye West. Popular music is different because of Johnny Cash.
A novel is a great act of passion and intellect, carpentry and largess. From the very beginning, I wrote to explain my own life to myself, and I invited readers who chose to make the journey with me to join me on the high wire.
I loved working when I worked at commercial art and they told you what to do and how to do it and all you had to do was correct it and they'd say yes or no. The hard thing is when you have to dream up the tasteless things to do on your own.
And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.
music, drawing, books, invention & exercise will be so many resources to you against ennui.
Long before I started to write in earnest, Lorrie Moore taught me you could have a woman narrator who was funny and complex and even wrongheaded. She opened up a lot of space that me and a million other women rushed into.
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