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Over at The 99 Percent, there's an interview with Francis Ford Coppola. It's also a fairly good interview by Ariston Anderson.
One of the excerpts that has just hit me and stuck with me is the following quote, when asked about the best piece of advice to leave to your children:
"Always make your work be personal.
"And, you never have to lie. If you lie, you will only trip yourself up. You will always get caught in a lie. It is very important for an artist not to lie, and most important is not to lie to yourself. There are some questions that are inappropriate to ask, and rather than lie, I will not answer them because it’s not a question I accept. So many times we are asked things in our work or in life that you want to lie, and all you have to do is say, “No, that is an improper question.”
"So when you get into a habit of not lying when you are writing, directing, or making a film, that will carry your personal conviction into your work. And, in a society where you say you are very free but you’re not entirely free, you have to try. There is something we know that’s connected with beauty and truth. There is something ancient. We know that art is about beauty, and therefore it has to be about truth."
As a creative and an artist, this very simple but resonating idea has left me thinking real hard about my work and how I work.
Lies beget lies. They need their kin to prop each other up. It's not the kind of monument you want to build.