I began writing poetry when I was about 10. Bad poetry, but you start with bad poetry. Jonas Mekas More Quotes by Jonas Mekas More Quotes From Jonas Mekas For an artist, to be normal is a disaster Jonas Mekas disasternormalartist In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not to their poets. Jonas Mekas poetpoliticiancivilization My films are the celebration of reality, of life, of my friends, of actual daily life that passes and is gone tomorrow. We don't pay attention to it when it happens. Jonas Mekas payattentionreality I'm working in a form of cinema that can be described, and has been described, as a diaristic form of cinema. In other words, with material from my own life. I walk through life with my camera, and occasionally I film. I never think about scripts, never think about films, making films. Jonas Mekas scriptscamerasthinking The deeper I went into culture, the more confused I got. So I needed something more real. I said, "Okay, from now on, my country will be cinema." Jonas Mekas confusedrealcountry An adventurer can always return home; an exile cannot. So I decided that my home would be culture. Jonas Mekas would-behomeculture In Lithuania, I am known as a poet, and they don’t care about my cinema. In Europe they don’t know my poetry; in Europe, I am a filmmaker. But here, in the United States, I am only a maverick! Jonas Mekas united-statescareeurope In a meadow full of flowers you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry of life. Jonas Mekas smellcolorflower Seek the insignificant small but essential qualities, essential to life Jonas Mekas insignificantqualityessentials My life is essentially not so unique. On some deeper levels we feel the same, we know the same things. Therefore if I show my life 365 days, moments from those days, it will reflect and it will have connection with lives of all of us. Jonas Mekas connectionslevelsunique The nature of the video camera really makes you focus on the present. Since I have always been a diarist filmmaker, not one who stages scenes with actors, it has always been about the present moment. Jonas Mekas videocamerasfocus We are the measure of all things. Jonas Mekas creationsoulart I'm not an abstract artist; I leave that to others. To me, abstract art ended with Kazimir Malevich's 'Black Square.' To continue it is senseless. Jonas Mekas blacksquaresart I'm not so much in the future as always in the present. The future always takes care of itself. What I do now with my video camera, it can only record what is happening now. I am celebrating reality and the essence of the moment. And that's the greatest challenge that I have. Jonas Mekas essencechallengesreality Just as in writing, there are novelistic and sort of pedestrian ways of telling a story, to write a postcard with your little pocket camera and put it on websites. I think that's where the most exciting kind of imagery and content is being recorded and exchanged today. Jonas Mekas writingtodaythinking You have the possibility to give light a dimension in time. Jonas Mekas dimensionslightgiving I make home movies-therefore I live. I live - therefore I make home movies. Jonas Mekas home Yes, I got my first Bolex camera a few weeks after being dropped in New York by the United Nations Refugee Organization. That was on October 29th, 1949. With my brother Adolfas, we wanted to make a film about displaced persons, how one feels being uprooted from one's home. Jonas Mekas brothernew-yorkhome Since 1950 I have been keeping a film diary. I have been walking around with my Bolex and reacting to the immediate reality: situations, friends, New York, seasons of the year. On some days I shoot ten frames, on others ten seconds, still on others ten minutes. Or I shoot nothing. Walden contains material from the years 1964-1968 strung together in chronological order. Jonas Mekas new-yorkorderreality We need less perfect but more free films. Jonas Mekas filmperfectneeds
