The magic doesn't come from within the director's mind, it comes from within the hearts of the actors.
James CameronRead
I try to live with honor, even if it costs me millions of dollars and takes a long time. It's very unusual in Hollywood. Few people are trustworthy - a handshake means nothing to them. They feel they're required to keep an agreement with you only if you're successful or they need you.
Interpretation
Living with honor requires personal integrity and may come at a high cost.
In this quote, James Cameron reflects on the significance of personal honor and trustworthiness, particularly in an industry like Hollywood where such values are often compromised. He emphasizes the rarity of genuine commitment and integrity, suggesting that true honor may involve sacrifices, highlighting the contrast between personal principles and the transactional nature of many relationships in that environment.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of integrity in business.
The magic doesn't come from within the director's mind, it comes from within the hearts of the actors.
To convince people to back your idea, you've got to sell it to yourself and know when it's the moment. Sometimes that means waiting. It's like surfing. You don't create energy, you just harvest energy already out there.
I tend to like strong female characters. It just interests me dramatically. A strong male character isn't interesting because it has been done and it's so cliched. A weak male character is interesting: somebody else hasn't done it a hundred times. A strong female character is still interesting to me because it hasn't been done all that much, finding the balance of femininity and strength. [From a 1986 Fangoria interview]
But failure has to be an option in art and in exploration - because it's a leap of faith. And no important endeavor that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks.
Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you're a director. Everything after that you're just negotiating your budget and your fee.
Every time you dive, you hope you'll see something new - some new species. Sometimes the ocean gives you a gift, sometimes it doesn't.
I don't worry about the last shot or the next shot. I concentrate. Every shot gets a clean slate. And when a shot is over, I wipe it out absolutely. Tell a joke or something. If you worry about how you looked, how well you did, you'll go insane.
Knowing how you actually want to feel is the most potent form of clarity that you can have.
It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.
The wisest of the wise may err.
When sadness comes, just sit by the side and look at it and say, "I am the watcher, I am not sadness," and see the difference. Immediately you have cut the very root of sadness. It is no more nourished. It will die of starvation. We feed these emotions by being identified with them.
Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.
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