"It's the same thing in a way, although writing a book is a very solitary thing"
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Neil Jordan lands a quiet demystification: book-writing isn’t some sacred opposite of filmmaking, just the same impulse forced into a different social climate. “It’s the same thing in a way” is doing a lot of work, smoothing over the prestige hierarchy that treats cinema as collaboration and literature as higher art. Jordan, a director who also writes, is claiming continuity of craft: storytelling is storytelling, regardless of whether the tools are a camera crew or a paragraph break.
Then he pivots to the real point: “although writing a book is a very solitary thing.” The subtext isn’t romantic loneliness; it’s operational reality. Film is a machine of constant feedback - producers, actors, editors, budgets, weather, location permits. Even a director with vision is negotiating. A book, by contrast, is a long stretch of unchecked decision-making. You don’t get the daily corrective of other people’s faces telling you whether a scene lands. Solitude becomes both freedom and risk: there’s no committee to blunt your weirdness, and no safety net to catch your indulgences.
Contextually, this reads like an artist speaking from experience across mediums, not issuing a grand theory. Jordan’s films often juggle interiority with spectacle; the line suggests he values that interior engine, the private obsession that precedes the public product. The “same thing” is the compulsion to build a world. The “solitary” is the price you pay when you build it without witnesses.
Then he pivots to the real point: “although writing a book is a very solitary thing.” The subtext isn’t romantic loneliness; it’s operational reality. Film is a machine of constant feedback - producers, actors, editors, budgets, weather, location permits. Even a director with vision is negotiating. A book, by contrast, is a long stretch of unchecked decision-making. You don’t get the daily corrective of other people’s faces telling you whether a scene lands. Solitude becomes both freedom and risk: there’s no committee to blunt your weirdness, and no safety net to catch your indulgences.
Contextually, this reads like an artist speaking from experience across mediums, not issuing a grand theory. Jordan’s films often juggle interiority with spectacle; the line suggests he values that interior engine, the private obsession that precedes the public product. The “same thing” is the compulsion to build a world. The “solitary” is the price you pay when you build it without witnesses.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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