It’s as hard to explain as a sexual proclivity. Some guys like high-heeled shoes. I like horror.
Interpretation
Explaining personal preferences can be complex and subjective.
In this quote, Guillermo Del Toro reflects on the intricate nature of individual tastes and interests, comparing them to unconventional sexual desires. He emphasizes that while some people may find it easy to articulate their preferences, others, like himself with a passion for horror, may find such interests difficult to explain, highlighting the diversity in human appreciation.
In practice
Using the quote in a discussion about the subjectivity of art preferences.
I don't try to sanction other people's joy in monsters. I mean, I think the fact is, humor, fantasy - you know, like fear, desire or laughter - create genres of their own: comedy, melodrama, or erotic films or horror films... The boundaries cannot be defined. It's to each his own.
As a director, I design every movie to be true to itself, and damn it if they like it, and damn it if they don't.
If you ask me, I alternate between truly bizarre, what you would call 'Hollywood' movies and truly bizarre, what you would call 'arthouse' movies.
But I think we are seeing a resurgence of the graphic ghost story like The Others, Devil's Backbone and The Sixth Sense. It is a return to more gothic atmospheric ghost storytelling.
The saddest journey in the world is the one that follows a precise itinerary. Then you're not a traveler. You're a f@@king tourist.
When you start with Super 8, you are everything. You're the DP, the sound man, the effects guy. And what I started understanding, by working for other people, is that the best type of director is someone who rose through the ranks.
Eschew the monumental. Shun the Epic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint great small ones.
Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.
Dance is not endangered - it will always find a way to express itself.
The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.
I sometimes have a horrible fear of turning up a canvas of mine. I'm always afraid of finding a monster in place of the precious jewels I thought I had put there!
Stories are there to be told, and each story changes with the telling. Time changes them. Logic changes them. Grammar changes them. History changes them. Each story is shifted side-ways by each day that unfolds. Nothing ends. The only thing that matters, as Faulkner once put it, is the human heart in conflict with itself. At the heart of all this is the possibility, or desire, to create a piece of art that talks to the human instinct for recovery and joy.
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