"I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience"
About this Quote
The subtext is craft-as-consumption. His movies are built from the pleasures of watching: tension you can feel in your shoulders, jokes that land like a dare, violence that’s stylized enough to read as choreography, not realism. That’s why the scripts are so talky and the set-pieces so patient; he trusts audiences to sit inside a scene until it sparks. “I don’t think the audience is this dumb person lower than me” is also a preemptive strike against the sneer that genre is inherently lesser. He’s insisting that pop literacy is literacy.
Context matters: Tarantino comes out of video-store cinephilia and grindhouse/arthouse cross-pollination, a moment when references and riffs became a legitimate creative language. His stance flatters the viewer, yes, but it also binds him to them. If he is the audience, then every indulgence is also a bet that you’ll share his appetites - and forgive him when he pushes them.
Quote Details
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Tarantino, Quentin. (2026, January 15). I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-dont-believe-in-elitism-i-dont-think-the-24066/
Chicago Style
Tarantino, Quentin. "I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-dont-believe-in-elitism-i-dont-think-the-24066/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-dont-believe-in-elitism-i-dont-think-the-24066/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.







