Daily Inspiration Quote by Jacques Rivette

There is a disarming humility in Rivette’s shrugging cadence, but it’s not modesty for its own sake. “I guess” and “or at least” are conversational hedges that double as a critical posture: taste is provisional, allegiance is negotiable, and certainty is the enemy of looking. Rivette, a director who came up through the Cahiers du Cinema ecosystem, is speaking from inside a culture where directors were argued into existence as auteurs, then immediately fought over like rival philosophies. In that context, the line reads like a quiet refusal to turn cinephilia into sectarianism.

The kicker is “I try to.” Liking directors becomes a practice, not a passive preference. That suggests an ethic: to watch generously, to meet a filmmaker on their own terms, to allow for failure, contradiction, even boredom without collapsing into dismissal. Rivette’s films often ask for that kind of patience themselves, stretching time until narrative becomes behavior and attention becomes the real plot. So the remark also functions as self-portrait: he’s describing how he wants to be watched.

Subtextually, it’s a gentle jab at the tribal reflex of criticism - the need to declare winners, to build an identity out of exclusions. Rivette’s line holds open the possibility that your canon can be porous, and that seriousness doesn’t require severity. In a world that rewards hot takes, “I try to” is almost radical: a commitment to curiosity over verdict.