Whit Stillman Quotes

Quotes about:

• The Cha-Cha is no more ridiculous than life itself.

  Whit Stillman

  Ridiculous

  "Fictional character: Nick Smith". "Metropolitan", www.imdb.com. 1990.

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• I explained to Amazon that I don't like outlining or projecting what something's going to be. 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. I was really resistant to do the mini-bible. So I gave them something, but I really didn't want to do it that way.

  Whit Stillman

  Writing, Thinking, Trying

  Source: collider.com

  6 Copy quote

• I decided the moment I graduated from college that I would never wear blue jeans again. And I have never worn blue jeans again.

  Whit Stillman

  College, Blue, Jeans

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• One of the problems of a director on the set is that we become overwhelmed by all the factors and threads of production, that sometimes we can't focus on our main job, which is steering the performances to create the whole film.

  Whit Stillman

  Jobs, Focus, Directors

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• I think it's helpful to aspire to make films if you feel that other people are not doing what you want to do.

  Whit Stillman

  Thinking, People, Doing What You Want

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. February 28, 2006.

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• For me, the present is a golden era. That's the greatest golden era. Right now. I just like pining for lost times.

  Whit Stillman

  Golden, Eras, Lost

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• For me, there's a bad year of getting started on something. You write bad stuff and it's awkward to throw it out, and you wait around to get some good ideas that maybe do come or don't come. Until eventually you get the voice and autonomy of the characters, the characters have personality, and they sort of pick up the weight and put it on their shoulders. That's when it becomes a little more fun.

  Whit Stillman

  Fun, Writing, Character

  Source: www.openlettersmonthly.com

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• The creation of a film starts with an idea, a notion of a time period or characters, and you get really excited about the idea, and sell it to others if you need their support to write the script. You can't wait to get started, and then you try to start, and you struggle with the blank page, and you get some ideas, and they're bad ideas, and you write bad stuff. It's really bad.

  Whit Stillman

  Struggle, Writing, Character

  Source: www.openlettersmonthly.com

  4 Copy quote

• It's terrible to write what are essentially comedies for people with no sense of humor. Everyone thinks they have a sense of humor, but observably not.

  Whit Stillman

  Writing, Thinking, People

  Source: www.rollingstone.com

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• I would say on the other side of the equation that there were really some massive sales and massive enthusiasm for some films that were given big releases. And I'm not really sure that happens in quite the same way, small films getting big releases. Maybe it still does, I don't know.

  Whit Stillman

  Doe, Enthusiasm, Way

  Source: collider.com

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• I'm for people clinging. I'm pro-clinging.

  Whit Stillman

  People, Clinging

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• So something I've felt I've learned with The Cosmopolitans shoot is using some agility and changing things quickly. That's something I found really useful on this shoot too. The gestation of The Cosmopolitans and this are slightly different from my other films. The script would be done and I'd be cutting it, but I wasn't always writing new material.

  Whit Stillman

  Writing, Cutting, Different

  Source: collider.com

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• Our roots are clinging, we shouldn't knock down so many old 'buildings.'

  Whit Stillman

  Roots, Old Buildings, Building

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• Mary McCarthy and that Mr. Intellectual kind of guy ... Dwight McDonald? And they were really mean about [Jerome David] Salinger, and oh they were going to destroy him, and just look how thoroughly they destroyed him! No one reads Salinger anymore!

  Whit Stillman

  Mean, Mcdonalds, Guy

  Source: newrepublic.com

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• I originally wanted to be F. Scott Fitzgerald, but failed.

  Whit Stillman

  Scott Fitzgerald, Wanted

  Source: newrepublic.com

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• I find it really disturbing to be watching a lot of the medium that I'm trying to work in. I prefer to be doing things that are farther away.

  Whit Stillman

  Trying, Mediums, Disturbing

  Source: newrepublic.com

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• I love watching the romantic comedies of the late '50s and early '60s. I used to have a rule that if Tony Randall's in it, it can't be bad.

  Whit Stillman

  Comedy, Used, Late

  Source: newrepublic.com

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• I call the '70s the "golden age of television"; in the early '70s there were sensationally good shows.

  Whit Stillman

  Age, Television, Golden

  Source: newrepublic.com

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• You can't go by what the governments say or do. It's not the governments. It's on the street where there's more hatred of Americans in Britain than in France.

  Whit Stillman

  Government, Hatred, France

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. February 28, 2006.

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• [ Lady Susan novel by Jane Austen is] extremely difficult to adapt. I worked on it for years, for, like, ten years, before I started showing it to people. This was my back-burner project.

  Whit Stillman

  Years, People, Projects

  Source: newrepublic.com

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• I can talk about Jane Austen until the cows come home.

  Whit Stillman

  Home, Cows, Austen

  Source: www.openlettersmonthly.com

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• There's a big difference between having relatives who have money and actually having it yourself. Just because you have a cousin who has a lot of money doesn't mean he shares it with you. Or that you'd ask him for a loan.

  Whit Stillman

  Cousin, Mean, Differences

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. February 28, 2006.

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• I think it's really good and helpful to have the people you most admire in some other discipline than what you work in. It's too intimidating and derivative to be just totally gobsmacked by someone doing exactly the same thing as you are.

  Whit Stillman

  Thinking, Discipline, People

  Source: www.rollingstone.com

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• [Jerome David] Salinger was really taken to the cleaners by nasty critics in his day. I think Joan Didion was one of the people who attacked him in a very unfair way.

  Whit Stillman

  Taken, Thinking, People

  Source: newrepublic.com

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• I think a lot of ["Cosmopolitans"] is marked by [Jerome David] Salinger. Salinger wouldn't allow his works to be adapted for film after his experience with "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut," and I think that's great for us because then we have to do our own Salinger stories.

  Whit Stillman

  Uncles, Thinking, Stories

  Source: newrepublic.com

  4 Copy quote

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