A biography for John Wilsonhasn’t been written yet.
“We made a pilot, and they bought it. I was so surprised I think I initially said I was gonna get a face tattoo if HBO gave me a show. But then I never really did.”
“Yeah, I've had to film interviews, commercial interviews - you know, for money, growing up and stuff where I felt like I was in a straitjacket because I couldn't ask them the questions that I really wanted to ask them.”
“It's like, I don't ever want the imagery to become stale; I don't want the quality of the memoir material to ever feel forced.”
“Sharing your most intimate thoughts can be a disturbing and messy experience.”
“Everybody has a different walk to Manhattan. Your walk depends on where you work, where you want to live, and how much money you make. Some people even get out of bed and they're already walking in Manhattan.”
“I've got an old Volvo from the eighties.”
“I think just having a genuine curiosity and not really playing a character when you're with someone intimately is really important.”
“I feel like the most interesting imagery out there does not have me in it.”
“I try not to lean too hard into nostalgia or anything. My favorite time to shoot New York is right now. People don't embrace the day-to-day stuff as much. So many people get trapped in these nostalgic loops and try to do so much forecasting, or reminiscing.”
“I'd burn DVDs and make VHSs of all my work that I would sell to the kids in school. I would get the cases from the dumpster at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. That was my hustle.”
“You know, I've struggled with a certain amount of social anxiety throughout my life, and the best tool that I feel like one could have when they're dealing with something like that is just to ask questions. Just don't stop asking questions. Because then you don't have to talk about yourself as much.”
“I always have a little camera on me whenever I leave the house.”
“I can't stop filming.”
“I don't like to do things about politics- well, explicitly about politics. I think there's a lot of political messaging within the work but it's disguised in a way.”
“Just the more people you talk to, the higher the probability is you'll get something that's really one of a kind.”
“There's this weird kind of thing that happens once the camera's out. And it's a person-by-person thing how the camera will affect their behavior and the people around them. But I can tell, just within a few seconds, whether or not I'll be able to go on a ride with someone.”
“I usually display all of my personal issues in little memoir films.”
“There's a lot of communities and ways of connecting that I want to elevate and just make people feel more comfortable embracing the thing you thought was embarrassing.”
“I made a movie every single day growing up. It was just so fun to be able to make your friends laugh.”
“Sometimes people are very kind of uptight and they're not really sure how to behave, but after time they open up sometimes. I have a hard time on camera sometimes, too. And I don't always feel super comfortable, but I find that I try to gravitate towards people that are more comfortable than I am on camera.”