I originally wanted to be F. Scott Fitzgerald, but failed. Whit Stillman More Quotes by Whit Stillman More Quotes From Whit Stillman 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 late comedy used I call the '70s the "golden age of television"; in the early '70s there were sensationally good shows. Whit Stillman golden age television [ 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 projects people years 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 differences mean 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 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 discipline people thinking 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 mediums disturbing trying 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 mcdonalds guy mean [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 people thinking 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 stories thinking Decline and Fall was a very depressing Evelyn Waugh novel, I think it was his first. I didn't get it at all, and then I got to love Waugh. And I think that maybe "Cosmopolitans" has a bit of an Evelyn Waugh vibe to it at some point. Whit Stillman depressing fall thinking In my father's time - he was in college during many transitions in the late 1930s - they had great institutional loyalties... to his college, eventually the navy, the Democratic Party and certain ideals of our country. Those are the things that became broken with my generation. Whit Stillman loyalty country father We learned some bad things, and the Vietnam War led to some bad conclusions. We're not the greatest generation, that's for sure. Whit Stillman vietnam generations war It becomes a lot better for the actors when we're 'shooting, shooting, shooting,' instead of waiting around in a trailer for something to happen. Whit Stillman shooting waiting-around actors 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 focus jobs directors There's the right person, or right people, for each other. There is that order that's searching to be found but, I think, it's not as if everything is going to be automatic. So, people could really be meant for each other and its goes awry; or they could have to learn or develop and grow up together. Grow to be right together. Whit Stillman grow right-person together people A very sad moment for me was when my parents separated - a lot of crying, 'It's tragic, we're now a broken family, blah blah blah blah blah' - although my psychological problems stopped. I actually felt healthier. Whit Stillman me moment sad family 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 think up people past I think my favorite two words are 'true blue.' I think those words are really important, and the spirit of them has been lost. Whit Stillman words think important blue I'm very troubled when editors oblige their film critics to read the novel before they see the film. Reading the book right before you see the film will almost certainly ruin the film for you. Whit Stillman will you reading book
