“I wanted to show artists as workers, not people who live in ivory towers.”

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“Guider’s life was a good example to show that art which is simply exploiting to the full one’s natural gifts is really bloody hard work, misery, momentary defeat and taking a lot of bloody stick – and giving it…if you want to show the hard work behind a work of art, then a sculptor is your very best subject. I was very conscious of this in the sequence where Gaudier sculpts a statue all through the night. It’s the heart, the core of the film, the most important scene to me.”

— Ken Russell on Savage Messiah (1972)

Chris: When I first came here, for three years, I studied all the time. Then one night, sitting in this chair right here, I had a vision: Hollyfeld. Lazlo Hollyfeld. And I followed him into the closet, down into the steam tunnels.
Mitch: So?
Chris: So? I talked to him, and he used to be the number one stud around here in the 70s. Smarter than you and me put together.
Mitch: Well, so what happened? Did he crack?
Chris: Yes, Mitch. He cracked, severely.
Mitch: Why?
Chris: He loved his work.
Mitch: Well what’s wrong with that?
Chris: There’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s all he did. He loved solving problems, he loved coming up with the answers. But, he thought that the answers were the answer for everything. Wrong. All science, no philosophy. So then one day someone tells him that the stuff he’s making was killing people.
Mitch: So what’s your point? Are you saying that I’m going to end up in a steam tunnel?
Chris: Yeah.
Mitch: What?
Chris: You are, if you keep up like this. Mitch, you don’t need to run away from here. When you’re smart, people need you. You can use your mind creatively.
Mitch: I noticed you don’t study too hard.
Chris: Bingo.

— Real Genius (via)