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" I identify entirely with Jane Austen's point of view, on everything. "
Whit Stillman
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Point Of View
Everything
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" The usual key to getting films made seems to be a producer's terrier-like determination not to let it go. Unfortunately, such producers often seem prone to sinking their claws into mediocre projects. "
Whit Stillman
Determination
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Seem
" Sometimes, people who are very fastidious about what they're going to do in their work are not very fastidious in their private life. I'm like that. I love it when people do really nice things around me, but I don't have time to do it for myself. It's very hard for me to even buy a new pair of trousers. "
Whit Stillman
Life
Time
Work
" I learned that you have to say that you're a filmmaker. You're not a screenwriter; you're not a director for hire. You've got to take charge. You're a filmmaker, and you're going to make a film. "
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Say
" I love writing novels, but I'm very fearful about writing something from absolute scratch. I kind of don't have the time to write something from scratch. I think when my knees completely give out, and I can't make films anymore, I would try to write novels from scratch. "
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Think
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" I kind of put people from the past up on a pedestal; I don't think, in a lot of ways, that we're at their level. "
Whit Stillman
Level
Past
People
" I'm very concerned about the countries bordering Russia. But let's stay off that stuff. "
Whit Stillman
Concerned
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Stay
" I think that, in terms of mainstream storytelling, the rebel gets off way too easy. We're way too hard on the insiders and way too soft on the outsiders. "
Whit Stillman
Think
Easy
Rebel
" If you're mostly a writer - if your point of departure is writing something - which for a writer/director is sort of where you start, you're really influenced by the writers you love one way or another. "
Whit Stillman
Start
Point
Love
" You have to constantly work on your script if it needs it. You don't accept, 'Oh, I did a draft and...' No, it's your responsibility to work on the script as much as possible and make it better and better. "
Whit Stillman
Better
Work
You
" The only way to end up in the perfect future is to invent it yourself. "
Whit Stillman
Yourself
Way
Up
" I like to allow a story to arise as I'm writing scripts. I find it horrible when I try to think of something for the plot without really being on the ground and seeing where it goes. "
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Try
Writing
Find
" The dull externals of the screenwriter's working life are well known: We are the people taking up too much table space at cafes. "
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Too Much
People
Life
" Some critic complained about how many small films are released in New York... it annoyed me. Those small films that are lucky to get two weeks are often my favorite films of the year. "
Whit Stillman
Year
New
Lucky
" Really, having a show freely available online is like having your book in the library. It's wonderful; it's ideal. "
Whit Stillman
Book
Library
Like
" There's certain key dance crazes that are just so much fun - wouldn't that be a great thing to do, to invent a dance? "
Whit Stillman
Key
Much
Great
" I think when my parents were together, my family was too prosperous for our psychological health. Not that they were that rich, but I feel that usually inherited wealth causes psychological problems. "
Whit Stillman
Think
Health
Parents
" I'm not sure what my material would have been if I'd have started earlier. I probably would have started with 'Damsels in Distress' kinds of films because that's the kind of comedy I was writing in college. So I didn't really have any life experience to work off of. "
Whit Stillman
College
Writing
Work
" Generally, I like people's trunk projects, the things they were working on before anyone knew who they were. I think when people run out of their trunk items and they start doing stuff just to do a film next year, the quality goes down, the interest goes down. Maybe it feels commercial or something. "
Whit Stillman
Start
Run
Quality
" When you're trying to force things in a script, it seems like it's getting somewhere, but it isn't real or interesting. All the bad material you've written becomes an albatross around your neck. So I really don't like writing a lot of bad stuff, I prefer to just keep narrowing it down to stuff I think is solid. "
Whit Stillman
Interesting
You
Trying
" I'm the ayatollah of the Jane Austen fan base! I want to lead the fan base, not be attacked and devoured by the fan base. "
Whit Stillman
Lead
Attacked
Base
" Making a show is such a long process. You go through a TV production house that will commission scripts, and if they like what you've written, they take it to a network and sell it to them. It has always felt very far away from something that's actually real. "
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You
House
Go
" When people are telling stories on screen, you can show the reactions of people, play it off those reactions, and it can be fun. But when it's someone just giving an opinion on things, even if the opinion is kind of interesting, that is potentially deadly. It has to be really quick. "
Whit Stillman
You
Interesting
People
" In Mexico, wealth and poverty live next to each other and are cordial with each other - in my experience. "
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Experience
Next
Live
" Oscar Wilde was sort of my first love as a young reader. And then I went on to love Jane Austen's wonderful - this sort of comedy coming from her. I mean, all of her books are comic. "
Whit Stillman
Mean
Young
Comedy
" I have to embrace the fact people find me divisive, but I find it remarkable. I was very disturbed by the hatred 'Damsels in Distress' received. "
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Find
People
Me
" My family was entirely political, all the time, on the left. The opposite of that is not to be political on the right. It's trying not to be - politics is not everything. There's life other than politics. Politics intrudes. "
Whit Stillman
Time
Politics
Political
" A lot of people in the film industry are fatalists who think a worthwhile film will always achieve its destiny, and the films that aren't worthwhile won't. It's all sort of pre-determined, etc. And I don't think that's true at all. "
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True
Achieve
Think
" I don't like the word 'perfectionist,' because it's self-flattering. It's tooting your own horn and implies that you actually can achieve perfection. I prefer 'particularist.' "
Whit Stillman
Perfection
Like
Own
" It's really important to have subjects that people all over the world are familiar with, and the Disney films are really great that way. "
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People
Way
World
" I fell for a Spanish woman and followed her to Spain. We got married there, and then I got involved in the Spanish film industry and got the material for 'Barcelona.' It was my way of breaking into the film industry. "
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Film
Got
Her