Sam Taylor
Sam Taylor
abyss allow cheerful defeat far might people stand surprised upbeat
When I had cancer, people were surprised at how cheerful and upbeat I was, but I couldn't let myself go to depression - to go there, that defeat would allow everything in. If you look too far into the abyss, you might never come out again. You can stand on the abyss and peep but not give in to sadness.
When I decide I want something, I go in like an Exocet missile.
create strange time
I struggle if I have chaos around me, but at the same time, if I don't have it, I'm uncomfortable. It's a strange thing: If I don't have chaos, I create it.
artwork cross filmmaking films great precedent
I think, for me, Julian Schnabel set a great precedent in being able to cross over so successfully. I feel like his artwork is kind of big, grand, and bombastic, yet the films that he makes are very beautifully sensitive, and I just feel that his filmmaking sensibility is very different from his artwork.
believe goes good kicks minute people
I think that, to be an artist, you have to have a big enough ego to believe that people out in the world want to see what you think is a good idea. And if you don't have that sense of ego, then the minute that idea goes into the world, self-doubt kicks in.
admit escape leading life obscure tried until
I went out of my way to try not to be an artist, because I thought I would end up leading a miserable, obscure life. I tried to escape it for as long as I could, until I had to admit at 25 that that was my path.
I was always interested in film, but I never knew how to go about becoming a filmmaker.
art london objects
I went to Goldsmith College of Art in London in the '80s and there I made sculptures, but the objects had nothing to do with how I was thinking. I was making beautifully sanded wooden boxes!
moved
I was living with my stepfather for a while, and then I moved out and went and lived on my own in Hastings-by-the-Sea from about 16.
interests journeys life particular
I think the whole of people's psychology and where they are in life interests me, and the decisions you make that take you on particular journeys to different places.
Just because you've faced your own mortality, it doesn't make it any less frightening.
bad boom quite stepfather
My stepfather was quite into opera, but he'd play it when he was in a bad mood, so you'd hear this boom through the floor, Wagner, and you'd feel nervous.
My mum told me once I was a Hindu.
mind taught
My mum has always been quite free-spirited, and she has taught me a lot. I think that is probably why I have the sort of mind that I do.