Director
NYU Tisch School of Arts | May 23, 2014
Martin Scorsese, the legendary film director, has left an indelible mark on the world of cinema. His iconic works, such as "Goodfellas," "Taxi Driver," and "The Irishman," have earned critical acclaim and a devoted following. Scorsese's mastery of storytelling, innovative filmmaking techniques, and contributions to the art of cinema make him a true luminary in the world of filmmaking, shaping the industry's creative landscape for decades.There’s a way that the force of disappointment can be alchemized into something that will paradoxically renew you.
10 top life lessons by Martin Scorsese
- Please Yourself to Shape Your Own Vision: Your creative journey is a personal one. Trust your instincts and shape your vision according to your own desires and passion.
- Nurturing the Initial Impulse: The initial desire for your craft is powerful but delicate. Protect it from the harsh influences of the world; nurture and guard it against the merciless external forces.
- Alchemizing Disappointment: Transform disappointment into a force that paradoxically renews you. Learn to turn setbacks into opportunities for growth and renewal.
- Embrace Singular, Unyielding Work: Be inspired by the old masters. Strive to be singular, inflexible, and unyielding in your creative work. The struggle to achieve should become its own reward.
- Protect Your Voice and Creativity: Regardless of shyness or fragility, protect your voice and creative spirit at all costs. This demands tenacity, confidence, and resilience.
- Stay Awake to Feelings and Ambitions: Dreaming can trivialize the process. Stay awake to your feelings, possibilities, and ambitions. Don’t be overly concerned with consequences; focus on the present and the creative journey.
- Every Step is a Lesson: Approach every aspect of your craft as a learning opportunity. Every step, brushstroke, scene, and shot is a school. Let the learning process be continuous.
- Preserve the Initial Desire: In different disciplines, everyone shares the struggle to preserve the initial desire that brought them into their craft. Protect and cherish this animating impulse.
- Your Position is Never Secure: Recognize that external circumstances are unpredictable. Secure and guard with your life the pure creativity that brought you here; it is the force that will carry you through.
- Resist External Values: Your work shouldn’t conform to other people’s values. Stay true to your creative vision, regardless of external judgments or expectations.
Best quotes of Martin Scorsese‘s speech
Every step is a first step. Every brushstroke is a test. Every scene is a lesson. Every shot is a school. So let the learning continue.""The seductions of the rewards are as risky as the temptations of anger and self-doubt."
Video of Martin Scorsese‘s Commencement speech at N/A
Commencement speech transcript
“There were no books in the house. My parents were not educated really and they were not in the habit of reading and they were really no books in the apartments of my any of my friends, really. But there were always movies.”
“Please yourself to shape your own vision.”
“It’s a very strong thing, that desire, that initial impulse — like an obsession. But it’s delicate too and it needs to be nurtured and protected against the incursions of the world which can be merciless.”
“There’s a way that the force of disappointment can be alchemized into something that will paradoxically renew you.”
“It’s the work of the old masters–whoever your masters are–really that remind you that you have to be singular, inflexible, unyielding in your own work so that even the struggle, that very struggle to achieve becomes its own reward.”
You may be shy. You may be tentative. And even, at times, you may be fragile. But you have to protect your own voice, your creative spirit, no matter what it costs. That takes tenacity, confidence, and resilience.
“If you’re dreaming, you’re sleeping. And it’s important and imperative to always be awake to your feelings, your possibilities, your ambitions. And don’t get hung up on the consequences because they can be good — like awards, success and even celebrity — and they can be bad — no awards, no success, no celebrity.”
“Every step is a first step, every brush stroke is a test, every scene is a lesson, every shot is a school. So let the learning continue.”
Any of you, whether you’re actors, writers, directors, painters, dancers, musicians, all of you in different disciplines, but every one of you are engaged in the same struggle. To preserve that initial desire, that animating impulse, that brought you here and will carry you along.
The thing is, your position is never secure. So what you have to make secure and guard with your life, because it is your life, is the same pure creativity that brought you here and that brought me here too. It’s the one thing that’s got to carry you through so irresistibly that sometimes it seems like it’s barely in your control and, you know, mostly it shouldn’t be.
There’s a way that the force of disappointment can be alchemized into something that will paradoxically renew you. You either learn it or you’re undone by it.
It’s the work of the old masters, whoever your masters are really, that remind you that you have to be singular, inflexible, unyielding in your own work so that even the struggle, that very struggle to achieve, becomes its own reward. The hard simple ability to continue is a kind of blessing.
You can’t do your work according to other people’s values.
I’m not talking about “Following your dream” either. I never liked the inspirational value of that phrase. Besides being sentimental, it’s beside the point. Dreaming is a way of trivializing the process. The obsession that carries you through the failure as well as the successes. If you’re dreaming, your sleeping and it’s important and imperative to always be awake to your feelings, your possibilities, your ambitions, and don’t get hung up on the consequences.
The seductions of the rewards are as risky as the temptations of anger and self-doubt.
Theodore Roosevelt said in 1910, in another springtime, at another university:
“It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles. Or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly, who errs, comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds. Who knows great enthusiasms; the great devotions. Who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement. And who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
You may be shy. You may be tentative. And even, at times, you may be fragile. But you have to protect your own voice, your creative spirit, no matter what it costs. That takes tenacity, confidence, and resilience.
I still find that trying to weave together into a visual narrative and cutting together two pieces of a film; two different images. When they come together in a way that’s unique and that’s different, something you hadn’t expected, that’s surprising and revelatory. It’s still exhilarating to me. It’s still satisfying. It’s still fulfilling. It’s still worth it.
Every step is a first step. Every brushstroke is a test. Every scene is a lesson. Every shot is a school. So let the learning continue.