"I cannot work fast enough. I cannot cope fast enough, really. And just releasing a film is hard"
About this Quote
The last line punctures any romantic notion of the auteur as effortless visionary. “Just releasing a film is hard” is a deliberately deflating “just” - a word that makes the ordeal sound modest while implying the opposite. In the contemporary film economy, release is where art meets gatekeeping: festivals, distributors, marketing budgets, streaming algorithms, rights clearances, and the slow violence of waiting. Herzog, who came up in a more cinephile, institution-driven era, is speaking from a landscape where attention is scarcer than funding, and where finishing the work doesn’t guarantee it will live in public.
The subtext is classic Herzog: the world is indifferent, systems are clumsy, and the only moral response is motion. Work faster, cope faster - not because speed is virtuous, but because stasis is a kind of defeat.
Quote Details
| Topic | Stress |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Herzog, Werner. (2026, January 16). I cannot work fast enough. I cannot cope fast enough, really. And just releasing a film is hard. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-cannot-work-fast-enough-i-cannot-cope-fast-116612/
Chicago Style
Herzog, Werner. "I cannot work fast enough. I cannot cope fast enough, really. And just releasing a film is hard." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-cannot-work-fast-enough-i-cannot-cope-fast-116612/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I cannot work fast enough. I cannot cope fast enough, really. And just releasing a film is hard." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-cannot-work-fast-enough-i-cannot-cope-fast-116612/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.




