I never approved of talkies. Silent movies were well on their way to developing an entirely new art form. It was not just pantomine, but something wonderfully expressive.
Interpretation
Lillian Gish expresses her belief that silent films were a unique and expressive art form worthy of appreciation.
In this quote, Lillian Gish reflects on her disapproval of 'talkies', highlighting the artistic value of silent films. She suggests that silent movies were not simply a precursor to sound films but rather an intricate art form that conveyed deep emotion and narrative through visual storytelling, pantomime, and expression without the reliance on dialogue.
In practice
During a film discussion, when talking about the evolution of cinema.
You know, when I first went into the movies Lionel Barrymore played my grandfather. Later he played my father and finally he played my husband. If he had lived I'm sure I would have played his mother. That's the way it is in Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older.
The stage was our school, our home, our life.
The older I get, the more I believe in what I can't explain or understand, even more than the things that are explainable and understandable.
I've never been in style, so I can't go out of style.
Dancing is a very living art. It is essentially of the moment, although a very old art. A dancer's art is lived while he is dancing. Nothing is left of his art except the pictures and the memories--when his dancing days are over.
I had two major activities as a child. I was trying to put on shows with kids in my street, or I was drawing. Actually, what I'm doing now is exactly what I was doing then. Either I'm drawing, or I'm gathering people for a common project. The only difference is that now they are paying me for that.
It is only framed in space that beauty blooms; only in space are events, and objects and people unique and significant and therefore beautiful.
I've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.
Like so many other nerdy, disaffected young people of that time, I dreamed of becoming an 'artist', i.e., somebody whose adult job was original and creative instead of tedious and dronelike.
Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace Robes loosely flowing, hair as free Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art: They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
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