Home / Quotes / Quote by Ken Burns

Quote by Ken Burns

“I have made all my films for my children with the exception of my first film because my oldest daughter wasn't born when I was making the film about the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Quote by Ken Burns

Author

Ken Burns, born on July 29, 1953, is an American documentary producer known for his in-depth historical research and unique narrative style. His works, which cover a range of periods from the American Civil War to modern history, are highly acclaimed for their ability to tell the story of the United States through images. more

You May Also Like

“I read cover to cover every jazz publication that I could and in the New York Times, every single day reading their jazz reviews even though I didn't put them in the films. I wanted to know what is going on.”

Knows Wanted Film Reading New York Jazz Reviews Publication New York Times

Author:Ken Burns

“I record all of my music with authentic instruments in a studio before we start editing, doing many, many versions. The music shapes the film as we edit so it has an organic relationship to the content.”

Film Records Shapes Instruments Studios Versions Editing Edits

Author:Ken Burns

“I subscribe to William Faulkner's' view that history is not just about what we were before but who we are now.”

Views Who We Are

Author:Ken Burns

“I think my expectations for myself are much more severe and much more direct. You can't work on a film for six years without being your own toughest critic. So you can't really be distracted by the expectations based on your previous performance.”

Thinking Years Film Six Expectations Direct Performances Critics Severe Distracted

Author:Ken Burns

“In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans?”

Author:Ken Burns

“In most films music is brought in at the end, after the picture is more or less locked, to amplify the emotions the filmmaker wants you to feel.”

Want Feels Ends Film Emotion Music Is Filmmaker Locked Amplify Film Music

Author:Ken Burns

“The stories from 1975 on are not finished and there is no resolve. I could spend 50 hours on the last 25 years of jazz and still not do it justice.”

Years Stills Stories Lasts Hours Justice Jazz Finished Resolve

Author:Ken Burns

“The way I work, the interview never becomes larger than the person being interviewed.”

Way Persons Interviews

Author:Ken Burns

“You need, as a historian, essential triangulation from your subject and the only way you get that triangulation is through time.”

Way Needs Subjects Essentials Historian Rough Times

Author:Ken Burns

“When a documentary filmmaker, working in the style that I do, suggests that there has been a shooting ratio of 40 hours to every one hour of finished film, that doesn't mean that the other 39 are bad.”

Mean Has Beens Film Hours Style Finished Shooting Filmmaker Documentaries Ratios One Hour

Author:Ken Burns