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When I was younger, all I cared about was what people thought of me and my films. Now I care less about catering, hand-serving, hand-feeding the audience. I've gotten to the point now in my life where I'm serving myself.
Steven Spielberg
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects a shift from seeking external approval to prioritizing personal authenticity.

In this quote, Steven Spielberg expresses a transformation in his perspective on success and artistry. He indicates that earlier in his career, he was heavily influenced by the opinions of others regarding his work and sought to please his audience. However, with age and experience, he has come to value his own preferences and creative instincts over external validation, emphasizing the importance of self-service and personal fulfillment in his craft.

Themes

SelfAuthenticityApprovalAudienceCreativityPersonal Growth

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about artistic integrity, a filmmaker might quote Spielberg to underscore the importance of staying true to one's vision.

More from Steven Spielberg

It starts with the writer-it's a familiar dictum, but somehow it keeps getting forgotten along the way. No film-maker, irrespective of his electronic bag of tricks, can ever afford to forget his commitment to the written word.
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When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it's you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.
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I just had a crazy, wild imagination all my life, and science fiction is the greatest outlet for me.
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From a very young age, my parents taught me the most important lesson of my whole life: They taught me how to listen. They taught me how to listen to everybody before I made up my own mind. When you listen, you learn. You absorb like a sponge - and your life becomes so much better than when you are just trying to be listened to all the time.
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I wanted to do another movie that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world. I wanted to do something else that could make us smile. This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times.
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There are so many rumours about so many of us in the public eye. Sometimes it's too hard to deny what is not true.
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