28 Quotes by Frederick Wiseman

I'm interested in ordinary experience, and regardless of the precise definition of ordinary, and I've found that in so-called ordinary experience, there is as much comedy, tragedy, sadness, as there is in great drama. And I don't invent it, I recognize it.

I think I have an obligation, to the people who have consented to be in the film, to make a film that is fair to their experience. The editing of my films is a long and selective process. I do feel that when I cut a sequence, I have an obligation to the people who are in it, to cut it so that it fairly represents what I felt was going on at the time, in the original event. I don't try and cut it to meet the standards of a producer or a network or a television show.

In moviemaking, you learn to pay attention to detail, because so much is in the detail. And when you’re shooting, you try to be very alert to what’s going on, even if you’re tired.

I’m too busy to be nostalgic, which is one of the reasons to keep busy. I’m not a very sentimental person.

Whether you’re a newspaper journalist, a lawyer, a doctor. You have to organize your thoughts.

One’s relationship to time is complicated, and sometimes a day will drag on forever and sometimes it’ll be over in a flash. When you look back, “I’m old,” after 40 or 60 years, I can’t believe I’m as old as I am.

I’m interested in ordinary experience, and regardless of the precise definition of ordinary, and I’ve found that in so-called ordinary experience, there is as much comedy, tragedy, sadness, as there is in great drama. And I don’t invent it, I recognize it.

I’m very careful of not being critical of other people’s movies, which work in different styles. I think some of my movies can be interpreted as critical of their subjects.

I don’t like to read novels where the novelist tells me what to think about the situation and the characters. I prefer to discover for myself.