I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art.
Willem De KooningRead
A film that aims low should not be praised for hitting that target.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that achieving a low goal is not worth commendation.
Gene Siskel's quote critiques the tendency to applaud films that settle for mediocrity. He implies that praise should be reserved for works that strive for excellence, suggesting that merely meeting a minimal standard does not warrant recognition.
In practice
During a film critique session, one might reference this quote to emphasize the importance of artistic ambition.
I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art.
My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.
The best art is realized when you can share the experience of making of it and not just the presentation of it, so that the audience is part of the creation and not just part of the consumption. Then it becomes much more full-bodied and robust.
Horror, of all the genres, is the only one that can provoke an involuntary visceral reaction.
The modern artist... is working and expressing an inner world - in other words - expressing the energy, the motion, and other inner forces.
A writer's job is to give the reader a larger vision of the world.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.