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Whit Stillman

March 21, 2012

I just discovered Chip Brown’s recent New York Times profile of Whit Stillman, which is phenomenal. I already loved Stillman’s films, but after reading the article he has become one of my heroes.

I restrained myself from tweeting every great line from the piece but I’ll list a few here that resonated with me most:

He says he has no assets but finds having no assets to be “pathologically exhilarating.”

…his Harvard thesis, “Ten Families,” on the lack of dynastic control in American family-run companies.

Whit Stillman resembles nothing so much as a character from a Whit Stillman film.

“What I like and find liberating in dialogue comedy is that the characters, and what they say, are not me.”

Since returning to New York in 2010, he has lived like a hermit crab, scuttling from sublet to sublet. “I’ve always wanted to live out of two suitcases,” he said.

As lunch was winding down, Stillman filled a cup with coffee from a Dunkin’ Donuts Box O’ Joe. He spotted a dime on the floor. “Money!” he said reaching for the coin.

Ten years after his graduation from Harvard, Stillman dispatched a note to the Class of ’73 Tenth Anniversary Report. Where fellow classmates were crowing about their blessed lives, Stillman, then 31, had only a paltry item to contribute: “I am still building up momentum but will have more to report for the next edition.”

“This is ground zero of a new dance craze!”

“We should probably chat before you write too much — everything I told you was a lie.”