About John Cassavetes

"There is a compromise made if you work on a commercial film and the compromise isn't how or what you do, the techniques you use, or even the content, but really the compromise is beginning to feel a lack of confidence in your innermost thoughts. And if you don't put those innermost thoughts on screen then you are looking down not only on your audience but the people you work with. And that's what makes so many people working out there unhappy. They say: 'Well, I'll make a lot of money and then I'll come back and do this later on.' The truth of the matter is, of course, that they never do. These innermost thoughts become less and less a part of you, and once you lose them you don't have anything else. I don't think anyone does it purposely. It's just that a lot of people are not aware of losing those things. I found myself losing them too, and the suddenly I woke up by accident, by sheer accident of not getting along with something, with something inside."