One would think that making a film is an additive process; you're building this—it's not, it's subtractive. The best metaphor I know of is we make maple syrup in [Walpole, New Hampshire] and it takes forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. And that's what the process is.
Download Image Share on X Share on Facebook

About This Quote

About Ken Burns

Ken Burns was a contemporary American documentarian and filmmaker. Kenneth Lauren Burns is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the National Endowment for the Humanities and distributed by PBS. Read more on Wikipedia →

More quotes by Ken Burns

“There is no communication in this world except between equals.”
— Ken Burns
communication inspiration

“The black-white rift stands at the very center of American history. It is the great challenge to which all our deepest aspirations to freedom must rise. If we forget that--if we forget the great st...”
— Ken Burns
equality politics race

“You can learn as much about the history from reading about the present as you can vice versa, that is learning about the present through history, which is what I do for a living.”
— Ken Burns
History Reading Living

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

“I am passionately interested in understanding how my country works. And if you want to know about this thing called the United States of America you have to know about the Civil War.”
— Ken Burns
America I Am Understanding

“I think this is the greatest threat to our republic ever. Not the Depression, not World War II, not the Civil War. This is it … This moment of all these intersecting viruses, of novel coronaviruses...”
— Ken Burns
View all quotes by Ken Burns →