Orson Welles: Expensive Paintbox
on Sunday, April 18, 2021Orson Welles Money Quote saying that hustling money to produce a movie is the greater part of what movie-makers do. Orson Welles said:
“I have wasted the greater part of my life looking for money and trying to get along, trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paintbox, which is a movie. And I’ve spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with making a movie. It’s about two percent moviemaking and ninety-eight percent hustling It’s no way to spend a life” — Orson Welles
In this quote, Orson Welles seems to be expressing regret over how much time and effort he spent trying to obtain funding for his films, rather than focusing solely on the creative process of moviemaking itself. By stating that making movies was “about two percent moviemaking and ninety-eight percent hustling,” and that it was “no way to spend a life,” Welles appears to be lamenting the large amount of energy he had to expend on fundraising, promotion and other business matters unrelated to the artistic craft of film direction.
His words suggest he felt he wasted a great deal of his potential and talents by having to spend so much of his career navigating the financial and commercial challenges of getting his film projects made, rather than immersed fully in the craft of cinematic storytelling.
Birthday: May 6, 1915 – Death: October 10, 1985