Thus far, everything I've made has come out of my really feeling it, out of the fire of my life. Miranda July More Quotes by Miranda July More Quotes From Miranda July I made some shorts that I'm not in. I think because I write so many short stories, it's not that hard to come up with characters that are not me. But my way into making movies has been through performing. My very first short film, I played a child and her own mother. So in some ways, to me, my great achievement so far is just that I've gotten all these other people to play the other parts. That's what makes it a real movie. Miranda July real mother children I can guarantee you nothing I do is a conscious attempt to inject something in. Miranda July i-can conscious guarantees I am very sincere. Some people are always kidding, so when you're not, it's going to seem annoying to them. Miranda July sincere annoying people I don't tally the world, asking, "Would this annoy you? Would this annoy you?" That's so far removed from where I'm at when I'm in the trenches struggling with how to express things that I don't fully understand myself. Miranda July struggle asking world I think it's more interesting if you go all the way with the world you have, and really look at it, and push it to an even more extreme extreme. Miranda July looks interesting thinking I don't think I'm more of a screenwriter than I am a fiction writer. I'm more of a reader than a film-watcher, so I imagine that I'm not approaching fiction or films in a particularly cinematic way. Miranda July way fiction thinking Making a movie: It's so hard. It's the hardest of all the things I do. Miranda July hard hardest When you're trying to create something and you need to hang out, in not knowing, in all the cracks and spaces where you feel lost, and you need to endure them, and have new ideas come out of that emptiness, well, the Internet is what we do when we feel lost, you know? Like, you go online or you check your email when you don't know what to do next, and so it's not helpful, in that sense. Miranda July space knowing ideas I mean obviously we're all dealing with a lot more strangers due to the web. I'd say it has more to do with the quality of interactions. When you're physically interacting with someone, it forces you to be more present and probably a little more uncomfortable. You have to tolerate being outside the comfort of your own home. Miranda July quality home mean My way into making movies - into making things is general - has been through performing. Miranda July performing my-way way If you read my short stories, there's a lot of sex in those in all different ways. To me, it's a really good, useful thing to get to have in a story. And in a movie, it's amazing, because you actually get to show things. Miranda July different stories sex I can't imagine being invested in someone else's script. Miranda July scripts imagine i-can I think because I write so many short stories, it's not that hard to come up with characters that are not me. Miranda July writing character thinking As a woman filmmaker it's pretty important that you have some basis of confidence that you're coming from, because, as I got closer to LA, there's less and less women. There's less and less mirrors for who you are. Miranda July filmmaker important mirrors There's always the sense that you should strike while the iron's hot and while there are all these opportunities, but that's not the way I get ideas. It has to be more organic, building up through living and through experiencing things. Miranda July building-up opportunity ideas I like embracing kind of normal forms but am always trying to approach them as if no one's ever done that before. As if I'm literally the first person to ever write a book. Miranda July always-trying writing book I suppose the daily disciplines are just a reflection of the qualities of my inner world - a mixture of paralysis and terror and a lighter, freer, kind of rebellious woman. So those are just constantly pushing against each other, and that's played out in every area of my life. Miranda July quality discipline reflection A more normal, mature way to think about it [my work] would be, Oh, I work on multiple projects at once and they overlap, but the actual psychology of it is a lot more self-abusing. Miranda July psychology self thinking The whole thing of working in all these different mediums, it's just so that I can always be playing hooky from one of them. I can always be rebelling against my boss. Like, I'm supposed to be writing this book, but - heh heh heh - I'm writing a movie, secretly. I'm procrastinating, and in my off-hours I'm working on this movie that I'm not allowed to do, because I'm supposed to be writing a book! Miranda July boss writing book I'm always just trying to get the work done so that I can be free - like, with the sense that, like, the real me has no interest in this? I just gotta do it for my boss. But the catch is that I'm never free, I never finish the work, so I don't know who this freewheeling employee with extracurricular interests is. Miranda July boss real trying
