We all steal, but if we're smart we steal from great directors. Then, we can call it influence.
Interpretation
Emulating the work of great creators is a smart way to develop one's own style.
This quote highlights the idea that all artists borrow ideas and inspiration from those who came before them. It suggests that rather than simply copying, one should draw from the influences of great creators to develop a unique voice, thus transforming what could be seen as theft into a respectful homage or influence.
In practice
This quote could be shared in an art class discussion about inspiration and originality.
For 6,000 years, these rules have been unquestionably right. And yet we break them every day. People feel that something is wrong in life. There is some kind of atmosphere that makes people now turn to other values. They want to contemplate the basic questions of life, and that is probably the real reason for wanting to tell these stories.
Things have changed for the worse. That's why former eastern bloc countries are electing communists again. We are missing them and longing for the times we cursed before.
Documentaries deal with people who live real, everyday lives. But if these people trusted us and told us the truth about their lives, it could be used against them - which sometimes happened.
I like chance meetings - life is full of them. Every day, without realising it, I pass people whom I should know.
Someone knocks at the door of an apartment to borrow salt or sugar, people run into each other in the elevator, and in this way become inscribed in the spectator's memory.
The television industry doesn't like to see the compexity of the world. It prefers simple reporting, with simple ideas: this is white, that's black; this is good, that's bad.
Only the very greatest art invigorates without consoling.
I love to see actors' work. I love to surf channels late at night and accidentally run into movies I hadn't seen before. It makes me very proud of the profession.
I don't understand why the press is so interested in speculating about my appearance, anyway. What does my face have to do with my music or my dancing?
The regular division of the plane into congruent figures evoking an association in the observer with a familiar natural object is one of these hobbies or problems...I have embarked on this geometric problem again and again over the years, trying to throw light on different aspects each time. I cannot imagine what my life would be like if this problem had never occurred to me; one might say that I am head over heels in love with it, and I still don't know why.
I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement.
Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"
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