I once said to a film director I know that I don’t see how movies ever get made, and he replied that in making a movie he has “so much help” from smart and skilled people — he doesn’t understand how I can just sit in a room and write books. But when I’m sitting in a room writing a book I am not accountable to or answerable to anyone else: I only have to manage Me.
Alan Jacobs
Jacobs goes on to paraphrase Lumet’s description of the director’s job:
In Lumet’s account, to be a director is to be in this mode of sensitively responding to all the people around you, with all their needs and demands, for weeks on end.
I find myself sympathetic to both modes of working. Few things fire me up like tackling a creative project with a group of talented people. I enjoy sensitively responding to them. But once the play’s run is over or the filming has wrapped, I can’t wait to get back to the computer and books. My ideal job would be divided between writing and directing… Hey! that’s an actual job, albeit one few people get paid for.
Christian Leithart 