The thing that was most harmful was that there was always something that was about to happen. So I found myself indulging in the writer’s luxury of doing another draft, another idea. If this project isn’t happening, then I’ll shelve one script and start writing another. And in that way, the years go by, and there’s very little money coming in. Whit Stillman Read Quote
Producers have a tendency to put you in a pigeonhole: ‘What does this white, middle-aged preppy know about 1960s Kingston?’ Whit Stillman Read Quote
I don’t like the word ‘perfectionist,’ because it’s self-flattering. It’s tooting your own horn and implies that you actually can achieve perfection. I prefer ‘particularist.’ Whit Stillman Read Quote
I don’t think you change from the time you’re 16 until you die. Maybe your body changes, and you have different experiences, but I think you become a fully conscious soul with full abilities. Souls are eternal, and if you keep your marbles until you croak in your 90s or your 100s, you’re the same. Whit Stillman Read Quote
A brief experience with a Radcliffe girl got very bad very quickly. I was so destroyed by it that I left and went to Mexico for a semester, where I have cousins. I learned how to speak Spanish, which was really important for my life. It was wonderful going to Mexico, learning another culture and a language. Whit Stillman Read Quote
I fell for a Spanish woman and followed her to Spain. We got married there, and then I got involved in the Spanish film industry and got the material for ‘Barcelona.’ It was my way of breaking into the film industry. Whit Stillman Read Quote
Categorizing people economically and hating them because you think they’re this way is a prejudice. Whit Stillman Read Quote
It’s a challenge for any writer to write beyond what he knows. You get material, adapt it, and do the best you can with it. Whit Stillman Read Quote
If you’re mostly a writer – if your point of departure is writing something – which for a writer/director is sort of where you start, you’re really influenced by the writers you love one way or another. Whit Stillman Read Quote
