Maybe, as a Chinese woman, I was never told I would be a filmmaker, so I didn't have the ego set up.
Interpretation
Chloe Zhao reflects on the impact of societal expectations on her identity as a filmmaker.
In this quote, Chloe Zhao discusses how her identity as a Chinese woman influenced her journey in becoming a filmmaker. She suggests that the lack of expectation for her to pursue this path led to a more authentic self-discovery, devoid of the ego that might come from being conditioned to view oneself as a filmmaker from a young age. This speaks to broader themes of identity, societal roles, and the unshackling of preconceived notions.
In practice
In a speech on diversity in film, one might quote Zhao to highlight the importance of authentic voices in storytelling.
The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it.
The wonderful thing about the cartoon form is it's a combination of words and pictures. You don't have to choose, and the contribution of the two often winds up being greater than the sum of its parts.
It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How _x000D_ else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?
Things danced on the screen do not look the way they do on the stage. On the stage, dancing is three-dimensional, but a motion picture is two-dimensional.
I know some things when I start. I know, let's say, that the play is going to be a 1970s or a 1930s play, and it's going to be about a piano, but that's it. I slowly discover who the characters are as I go along.
Beginning a novel is always hard. It feels like going nowhere. I always have to write at least 100 pages that go into the trashcan before it finally begins to work. It's discouraging, but necessary to write those pages. I try to consider them pages -100 to zero of the novel.
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