The judgments our enemies make about us come nearer to the truth than those we make about ourselves.
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
We swim, day by day, on a river of delusions, and are effectually amused with houses and towns in the air, of which the men about us are dupes. But life is a sincerity.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
Film is more than the twentieth-century art. It’s another part of the twentieth-century mind. It’s the world seen from inside. We’ve come to a certain point in the history of film. If a thing can be filmed, the film is implied in the thing itself. This is where we are. The twentieth century is on film.... You have to ask yourself if there’s anything about us more important than the fact that we’re constantly on film, constantly watching ourselves.
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)