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" 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. "
Whit Stillman
Try
Writing
Find
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" My theory in the '90s was that I didn't want to take a Jane Austen book I loved and reduce it to a 90-minute movie. The Emma Thompson-Ang Lee 'Sense and Sensibility' was beautiful, but other ones, I didn't think justice was being done. It's not a slam dunk to adapt these books. "
Whit Stillman
Think
Loved
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" I feel that if you want to make films, you have to be willing to make it without a fee. You get a deferment, I guess. "
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You
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" I'm totally devoted to '30s cinema. "
Whit Stillman
Cinema
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Totally
" I remember going to one party of this preppy, bourgeois crowd, and there was some obnoxious character there, really bad news, and saying, 'Oh my God, so the caricature you always see in films actually exists.' "
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God
You
Character
" 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
" With all my films, the pace is not very fast, and so people get bored with them and comment that they're just people talking in rooms and all that. "
Whit Stillman
Just
Fast
Talking
" I think one thing that makes me delay projects more than other people is, I see this silver lining in a turn-down. Maybe if I just wrote a script and then pounded my head against all the doors, I would be shooting more films. "
Whit Stillman
Me
Think
People
" I like things that are sort of comic and humorous rather than satirical. "
Whit Stillman
Than
Sort
Rather
" The worst thing is the blank page at the start. Then the horrible things written on the blank page. Then deciding whether or not to throw out those horrible things: lame scenes, lame characters, bad ideas. "
Whit Stillman
Worst
Page
Start
" Happy is the small business that can hire additional employees besides the proprietor; rare is the indie-film enterprise that can be happy in this way. The norm is an unpaid principal with no employees between productions. "
Whit Stillman
Way
Happy
Business
" 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
" 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
" What I like and find liberating in dialogue comedy is that the characters, and what they say, are not me. These are fleeting thoughts and observations and not presented as truths but as something that illuminates the character and the dynamic between the characters. This kind of dialogue is thesis and antithesis - and we never get to a synthesis. "
Whit Stillman
Me
Thoughts
Character
" That's why I hate the outlines and treatments, because all you get are cliches. If you put things down on paper as your plan, it's very hard to get those ideas out of your head and do something better. "
Whit Stillman
Hate
Plan
Down
" 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. "
Whit Stillman
True
Achieve
Think
" I read one Jane Austen in college and didn't like it at all and told everyone how much I disliked it. I read 'Northanger Abbey' sophomore year in college and hated it. I didn't read good Austen until after college, maybe a couple years out. "
Whit Stillman
Out
Year
College
" 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
" The thing that was most harmful was that there was always something that was about to happen. So I found myself indulging in the writer's luxury of doing another draft, another idea. If this project isn't happening, then I'll shelve one script and start writing another. And in that way, the years go by, and there's very little money coming in. "
Whit Stillman
Start
Luxury
Writing
" I didn't realize how limiting an R rating is. I made 'Disco' as a cautionary tale for 14- and 15-year-old girls, and those girls were not allowed to see the film by their parents. "
Whit Stillman
Film
Parents
Realize
" 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
Go
Seem
" I had, in college, a professor called Walter Jackson Bate, and he taught a course called The Age of Johnson. It's about Samuel Johnson and his period, 18th-century British writing. So we all got to endure Samuel Johnson, and Boswell's 'Life of Johnson' is now my favorite book. I read it all the time I can; it's great for going to sleep. "
Whit Stillman
Book
Age
Time
" My biggest false steps have actually been when I tried to do very different projects. I found I was getting people saying, 'Why does Whit Stillman think he can do a film about blacks in early '60s Jamaica? Or the Chinese and the cultural revolution?' Those were the two biggest failures I had getting off the ground. "
Whit Stillman
People
Saying
Think
" 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. "
Whit Stillman
Film
Got
Her
" I really like working with people again and again, and I don't know why everyone doesn't do it. Because you already know them, and you know how good they are. "
Whit Stillman
Good
You
Working
" A brief experience with a Radcliffe girl got very bad very quickly. I was so destroyed by it that I left and went to Mexico for a semester, where I have cousins. I learned how to speak Spanish, which was really important for my life. It was wonderful going to Mexico, learning another culture and a language. "
Whit Stillman
Culture
Girl
My Life
" In Mexico, wealth and poverty live next to each other and are cordial with each other - in my experience. "
Whit Stillman
Experience
Next
Live
" One of the downsides of money is if there's no money, there are very few real jerks who are attached to your project. And if there is money, you do attract some very difficult, unhelpful people. "
Whit Stillman
You
Real
Difficult
" I've learned that I really want to shoot short films on a short schedule. There can be very good films that run 110 minutes, but 90 minutes is beautiful. "
Whit Stillman
Beautiful
Good
Short
" So much of selling a film in the industry is about creating a fulcrum where all the pressure comes to bear, and something seems suddenly valuable and approved by an audience. It's amazing how people could pick up tons of films on the cheap, but they don't because they wait until everything is laid out for them. "
Whit Stillman
Amazing
People
Wait
" Paris is a Roach Motel for top American journalists: They check in, having won the plum foreign posting, but never leave. "
Whit Stillman
Leave
Paris
Plum