The Conversations Quotes

“Writing is a process of discovery of what you really do know. You can't limit yourself in advance to what you know, because you don't know everything you know.”
― Walter Murch, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

“Once things have passed and become irretrievable, we tend to see them with a hazy, golden glow.”
― Walter Murch, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

“The Aztecs invented the wheel, but didn't know how to use it except as a children's toy. Even though they built roads that to us scream out to have a wheel put on them, nonetheless they continued to drag things around. The society itself was blind to the possibilities.”
― Walter Murch, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

“When you’re putting a scene together, the three key things you are deciding over and over again are: What shot shall I use? Where shall I begin it? Where shall I end it? An average film may have a thousand edits in it, so: three thousand decisions. But if you can answer those questions in the most interesting, complex, musical, dramatic way, then the film will be as alive as it can be.”
― Michael Ondaatje, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

“... when Warner Bros. cancelled the financing for Zoetrope, the Apocalypse Now project was abandoned for a while. After the success of American Graffiti in 1973, George wanted to revive it, but it was still too hot a topic – the war was still on – and notobdy wanted to finance something like that. So George considered his options: What did he really want to say in Apocalypse Now? The message boiled down to the ability of a small group of people to defeat a gigantic power simply by the force of their convictions. And he decided, All right, if it's politically too hot as a contemporary subject, I'll put the essence of the story in outer space and make it happen in a galaxy long ago and far away. The rebel group were the North Vietnamese and the Empire was the United States. And if you have the force, no matter how small you are, you can defeat the overwhelmingly big power. Star Wars is George's transubstantiated version of Apocalypse Now.”
― Walter Murch, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

“When you’re putting a scene together, the three key things you are deciding over and over again are: What shot shall I use? Where shall I begin it? Where shall I end it? An average film may have a thousand edits in it, so: three thousand decisions. But if you can answer those questions in the most interesting, complex, musical, dramatic way, then the film will be as alive as it can be.”
― Walter Murch, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film