Jonas Mekas Quotations

My life is essentially not so unique. On some deeper levels we feel the same, we know the same things. Therefore if I show my life 365 days, moments from those days, it will reflect and it will have connection with lives of all of us.

Since 1950 I have been keeping a film diary. I have been walking around with my Bolex and reacting to the immediate reality: situations, friends, New York, seasons of the year. On some days I shoot ten frames, on others ten seconds, still on others ten minutes. Or I shoot nothing. Walden contains material from the years 1964-1968 strung together in chronological order.

Just as in writing, there are novelistic and sort of pedestrian ways of telling a story, to write a postcard with your little pocket camera and put it on websites. I think that's where the most exciting kind of imagery and content is being recorded and exchanged today.

Seek the insignificant small but essential qualities, essential to life

I missed my teenage years. I was never a teenager.

I began writing poetry when I was about 10. Bad poetry, but you start with bad poetry.

Place means nothing to me. I can be at home anywhere.

In 1962, we created the Filmmakers' Co-Op because nobody wanted to distribute our films. If we had the Internet in those days, we wouldn't have needed the Co-Op.

You have the possibility to give light a dimension in time.

There is no other way to break the frozen cinematic conventions than through a complete derangement of the official cinematic senses.