A play, after all, is a mystery. There's no narration. And as soon as there's no narration, it's open to interpretation. It must be interpreted. You don't have a choice... Each play can become many things.
Mike NicholsRead
In making movies, time is so short-because it is so expensive-that we tend to neglect the place from which the best ideas come, namely that part of ourselves that dreams. The unconscious is our best collaborator.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of nurturing creativity and our dreams in the filmmaking process.
Mike Nichols highlights the tension between the constraints of time and budget in movie making and the need to connect with our inner creativity. He argues that the best ideas often emerge from our unconscious, which requires time and space to explore and develop, suggesting that filmmakers should prioritize tapping into their dreams and imagination over rushing through the creative process.
Themes
CreativityDreamsFilmmakingUnconsciousArt
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a workshop for aspiring filmmakers to encourage them to value their creative instincts.
More from Mike Nichols
All quotes →There’s nothing better than discovering, to your own astonishment, what you’re meant to do. It’s like falling in love.
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You could say that it's in talking movies that inner life begins to appear. You can see things happen to the faces of people that were neither planned nor rehearsed.
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The thing about being an outsider... is that it teaches you to hear what people are thinking because you're constantly looking for the people who just don't give a damn.
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I've learned that many of the worst things lead to the best things, that no great thing is achieved without a couple of bad, bad things on the way to them, and that the bad things that happen to you bring, in some cases, the good things.
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Plays, especially great plays, yield their secrets over a long period of time. You can't read it three times and say, 'OK, I got it. I know what's happening.'
Mike NicholsRead
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