Quotes by Frederick Wiseman

“Theyre all movies. Ive always just done whatever interested me and this interested me. I never felt any need to rationalize to myself or to anyone else why I chose to do a fiction film. Maybe Ill do another fiction film, maybe I wont; maybe Ill do another documentary, maybe I wont.”

“My goal is to make as many films as possible about different aspects of American life.”

“Whether youre a newspaper journalist, a lawyer, a doctor. You have to organize your thoughts.”

“Anybody whose mind is functioning at all cant be content with the way the world works.”

“I dont like to read novels where the novelist tells me what to think about the situation and the characters. I prefer to discover for myself.”

“I hope that not only my documentaries, but everybodys documentaries, last. It will really confuse historians in the next century, because theyll have, in addition to all the print material, theyll have all these pictures to look at.”

“You have to edit the material. That assumes that some kind of a mind is operating in relation to the material. Not all minds are the same. Every aspect of filmmaking requires choice. The selection of the subject, the shooting, editing and length are all aspects of choice.”

“There are lots of different ways to make film. I dont believe there has to be any orthodox way to making movies, or any rules. Its what works for the filmmaker, and, theoretically, the audience.”