My greatest debt will always be to the movie-going public of yesterday and today, without whose love and devotion I would have had no story to tell.
Interpretation
This quote expresses gratitude towards the audience for their support in storytelling.
Gloria Swanson is acknowledging that her career and the stories she tells in her films are made possible by the affection and dedication of the movie-going public. Without the audiences who appreciate art, filmmakers would have no platform to share their narratives, highlighting the symbiotic relationship between creators and viewers in the film industry.
In practice
When giving a speech at a film festival.
So they were turning, after all - those cameras. Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her. Norma: You see, this is my life. It always will be! (In a whisper) There's nothing else - just us - and the cameras - and those wonderful people out there in the dark. All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up.
I have gone through a long apprenticeship. I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gateman to the highest executive will know it.
I never got into making documentaries for any kind of success, because documentary careers are generally ones of prolonged failures.
When I design buildings, I think of the overall composition, much as the parts of a body would fit together. On top of that, I think about how people will approach the building and experience that space.
The poems ... are moments when I had the intensity to see, and the energy to build, some careful analog that completed the seeing. ... All I have been left is the exhausting habit of trying to tack up the slack in my life with words.
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.
Working in Hollywood does give one a certain expertise in the field of prostitution.
I cannot imagine any writer who would not fight for his peace and quiet.
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