The Talks
Bruce Gilden: “Criticism always motivates me”
Mr. Gilden, it was recently commented that every time someone makes photos with a Leica and calls it “street photography,” they should have to pay you five dollars. What do you think of that?
(Laughs) Oh, I don't believe that at all! That’s in jest! But so many people simply go into the street with their camera, and they call themselves a street photographer. I take a little offense to that because they’re often not very good. For me, I’m 78 years old now, I’ve been in the street with my camera for almost 60 years — even longer without a camera, even as a child I was out there playing ball as a kid in Brooklyn and Queens. I think to be a street photographer, you have to be outside, you feel the dirt, you smell the street, it’s about more than just a style, it’s about how you work.
But you would agree that you’re a pioneer of this photography genre?
Well, I think I'm very good. I know I'm very good. I worked very hard in the beginning to define my own style; I looked at all different kinds of magazines, and I went to all different kinds of photography shows to see what I liked, what I didn't like. And that's how I learned how I wanted a photograph to look. I ended up taking a photo course at night while studying to be an actor during the day. Eventually I bought a Nikon, and that was it, I was hooked. I stopped acting and just took photographs, doing whatever jobs I had to in order to support myself.
“I remember driving in New York in 1976 and I put the brakes on quickly because there was the very, very first Vogue cover that I ever shot. Big, on a bus shelter! And I remember just pulling over and just staring at it. At that point it was a real dream to see one of your pictures there. I’d always dreamed of doing a Vogue cover!”
“When you keep yourself open, you just might get to know yourself and know the good things about yourself. And that's why I always come back to songwriting. It's the way I kind of try and make sense of my life.”
“If I want to make a movie and I can at 62, I will. But I want to leave the ring triumphant. I want this guy, this guy you see right now, I want him to be the guy who makes the movies, not the autumn dude.”
“I want to be an authentic person. I start to feel that it’s a mission. I am not going to hold back on an opinion I have about something; I don’t know what the point of that would be.”
“I’ve learned that with time also comes pleasure: the pleasure of creating but also upholding the legacy that’s been passed down to me.”
“I do not consider architecture as art, nor do I consider architects to be artists. However, I do have a strong desire to improve the purity of my expression and put a strong message into my architecture so that I can call it art!”
“In the moment when you’re designing a building, it’s the subject. One year later, when you just go back and see it, it’s the object. It becomes part of the city. It starts to sit where it should be sitting.”
“I always want to take a human portrait. My goal in life is always to enter into everything with great care and with great humanity.”
“It’s the rollercoaster ride of doing something creative: when it goes well and you enjoy the process then it’s a high and you just want to keep on doing it.”
“when we finally put a piece together for the first time, seeing it all together, when it actually works… The excitement in the room is something I’ll never forget. It feels like a very powerful moment to be part of.”
“I live from my heart. I am not a cerebral person. I will never be. I am 55 years old. I will continue doing things the way I have done them my whole life.”
“I started a very nice career, became quite successful, and at age 40 I won this prize. But when I got that prize, I realized that I hadn’t yet found my own language of cooking. So I got on my knees and gathered all the tools from my childhood and started working very hard on that. And that’s how it started.”
“The success of translating an idea into action is very often where the talent is to be found. If you can give a body to the idea, I think you are onto a very interesting process.”
“I thought for a long time as the business grew, “Is this something I want to do for the rest of my life?” And I knew it was not. When I left Calvin Klein, I had done almost everything I wanted to do in terms of creation of products. And re-doing was less fun.”
“I don’t pander to anybody. I don’t care who it is. I just do the picture I do.”
“If I should be fortunate enough to make another film, it would be exactly what I have settled upon as what is right for me. I feel that these days, I understand a little more what the cinema is.”
“I think it comes from my desire as a kid to do something artistic that would amaze people, you know? I wanted to do nothing less than that. Those are the projects that I love: figuring out what might just be possible but hasn't been done yet.”
“I discovered early on that I’m the kind of person that experiments and makes mistakes but then it’s all worth it because once in a blue moon it hits home.”
“I am not that interested at the moment to work for the sake of others, I’m not interested in doing commissions. I'm way more interested in creating art for art's sake and in order to do that I have to believe in myself.”- “I knew what felt instinctively right for me, and I pursued that throughout my entire career. It’s the way I live; it’s the way I work. Everything that I’ve done and everything that I have is an extension of my personal taste.”
“I believe anyway that the prime-time for every work of art exists in the time in which it was done. After that it’s transformation, continuous transformation.”
“The thing I’ve gathered more of over the years is a self-confidence that’s to do with having done work that people have liked.”- “When I was younger I used to have more anxiousness to obtain things. But there are moments in which you obtain those things and then you relax.”
“Somehow at the end of the day doing something that actually resonates with people is quite rewarding and keeps me going.”
“It’s still astounding to me that I have one Oscar, let alone two. Especially because it’s by-product of something that you love so much, it feels like that’s already the gift, that’s already the award.”
“I struggled a lot. That was the reason I became a champion. A lot of people give up, a lot of people feel sorry for themselves. But I didn't.”
“You better make every moment count. Live your life now; start in the morning. You mustn’t sit around waiting to die.”
“I am very grateful for the films I’ve made. I’ve been able to make movies for $1 million and I’ve been able to make movies for $195 million. I can do what I want in different sizes for different reasons. I have been able to do 10 more movies than I thought I would ever make!”- “I’m 80 years old now, and little by little over your lifetime you begin to understand things that you didn’t understand earlier.”
“I feel quite free as an artist. I don't feel that I have to prove anything. It’s a liberating feeling. I can go in any directions, I can explore and embrace whatever I want.”
“You can’t measure something like who is the best chef in the world. Whether I’m the best or not, no one can really say. However, my restaurant elBulli was certainly the most influential restaurant in the world.”
“To have those magical moments, the ones that require real trust or bravery or letting go, you’ve really gotta swing for the rafters! You’ve got to try and hit it out the park — although you might miss. You’re always trying to hit it into the rafters, and damn the consequences if you don’t make it.”
“I would like to think that someday I will be content enough with myself and feel good enough about myself to think I don’t need to do all that sort of shit and I’ll just go and watch tomatoes grow or something.”
“People have said that before, “Oh, I'll read a recipe and know it's yours before I see your name on it.” That's the best compliment because I feel like working with food is such an extension of my personality.”
“You’ve got to actually write it. You’ve got to actually sit there and do it, it can’t just be about the experience. Lots of people have fantastic experiences in life, but don’t have any inclination to put pen to paper.”
“I’m using my skills to create architecture that serves humanity. I’m talking about creating space for you so that you can feel comfortable, space that supports your work and activity.”
“My work is integrated completely into my life and vice-versa – I’ve been working since I was 16. My work is my life and my life is my work. It made me who I am.”
“When you are in a very, very tough moment of a day and have a lot of frustration because nothing is happening right—but you don’t give up—and suddenly that happens! That’s almost a transcendental thing.”
“Once I commit to an idea, then I just move forward with it, no matter what. And that's always how I've operated when it comes to my art. I'm kind of tenacious in that way, even if it takes a lifetime, eventually I will make that thing.”
“The journey is everything! It’s a cliché, but I have really felt it in my own life, in the 25 or 30 years I’ve been in this… The goal is the process, really enjoying the process.”
Hugh Grant: “It has to give you a thrill”
Mr. Grant, what kind of characters have you most loved playing over the years?
Well, in the early part of my career, I did all kinds of things. But one strand was baddies or weirdos — and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I wish I had kept that going, at least simultaneously, when I went off down rom-com alley. Although I do think that image perished in about 2010.
What did you like about playing the baddies?
It’s more fun. Actors prefer being baddies! Audiences prefer the baddies, and it's a very interesting question of why that is so. My personal belief is that it's the antagonist, the bad guy, who represents our true selves. And that is thrilling. I think it's thrilling to experience our true selves through that character. I think we are vicious, violent, selfish, unpleasant. And that's why good characters are quite difficult, because the good characters are the superficial, civilized veneer that we put on our true brutish self. It's less interesting. People are fascinated with bad guys in the way that they're fascinated with horror. They're fascinated with a spider in a tank or a snake in the zoo. You can't take your eyes off them, whereas the rom-com ones are much harder as an actor because you're always in grave danger of being a bit boring.
Ramin Djawadi: “Let emotions lead the way”
Brian Tyree Henry: “It reminds me that I’m alive”
David Cronenberg: “You are revealing many things”
Elizaveta Porodina: “I want to keep the idea pure”
Kwame Onwuachi: “I take it one day at a time”
Tilda Swinton: “We need cinema now more than ever”
Walter Salles: “Create in the moment”
Lol Crawley: “You’re attuned in that moment”
