I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that the grandeur of a person's vision or ideas can be diminished by the limitations imposed by external factors, such as the medium or context.
Billy Wilder's quote, 'I am big. It's the pictures that got small,' reflects the idea that an individual's potential and greatness may be undermined by the constraints of their environment or the perceptions of others. It speaks to the tension between one's true self or capabilities and the restrictions that society or circumstances can impose, particularly in the realm of artistic expression and creativity. Wilder emphasizes the importance of recognizing that greatness is inherent, while sometimes the platforms or formats we use may not do justice to it.
In practice
During a speech about innovation in film, you might use this quote to discuss the challenges creators face.
Film’s thought of as a director’s medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It’s that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot-the telephone book? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they’ve had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.
What critics call dirty in our pictures, they call lusty in foreign films.
I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.
Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.
Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
I'd worship the ground you walked on if only you walked in a better neighborhood.
Every paint-stroke takes you farther and farther away from your initial concept. And you have to be thankful for that.
Nudity has never seemed to bother Grace Jones. Her art has thrived, in part, on a physical candor that both shocked people and redrew the boundaries of taste, beauty, and eroticism around her masculinity, ebony skin, and unrelenting intensity.
We don't take photographs with our cameras, we take them with our hearts and our minds. They are a reflection of ourselves...wha t we are and what we think.
The arts have always served relationships between people of different cultures so well. In a way, the arts function as a very serious kind of ambassador.
I find campfire stories and urban legends are kind of the bread and butter that inspires a lot of people who are making horror and thriller. There is a nugget of truth behind these sort of cautionary tales.
Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.
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