Brother Quote by Robert Cormier
“The earliest influence on me was the movies of the thirties when I was growing up. Those were stories. If you look at them now, you see the development of character and the twists of plot; but essentially they told stories. My mother didn't go to the movies because of a religious promise she made early in her life, and I used to go to movies and come home and tell her the plots of those old Warner Brothers/James Cagney movies, the old romantic love stories. Through these movies that had real characters, I absorbed drama, sense of pacing, and plot.”
About This Quote
Source Interview: The New Yorker, 1995
The speaker credits 1930s cinema for shaping his narrative instincts, noting character depth and plot pacing as lessons learned.
In simple terms: 1930s movies taught him storytelling basics.
Key Takeaway
Study classic films for narrative techniques.
Themes
storytelling
film influence
character development
plot structure
Mood
nostalgic
reflective
inspirational
Type
educational
inspirational
When to use this quote
- writing workshops
- film studies
- personal reflection
- creative education
Key Concepts
cinema history
narrative craft
cultural memory
Questions to Reflect On
- How can contemporary media emulate classic storytelling?
- What elements of 1930s films are still relevant today?
A Different Perspective
Modern media may lack the same depth of character focus.
![“[Akiro] Kurosawa, no doubt, was a big influence. Movies sometimes more than directors have influenced me: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Ford, was an extraordinary discovery. Sergei Eisenstein, of course. Later on, [Ingmar] Bergman.” quote by Costa-Gavras](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/dff/costa-gavras-22487_bergman_akiro-kurosawa-no-doubt-was-a-big-influe_213833.jpg)
