Martin Scorsese doesn't share Quentin Tarantino's retirement dreams, confirms he is 'built differently'

80-year-old Martin Scorsese just directed his 26th narrative feature film, and he has no intention of slowing down.

The Killers of the Flower Moon filmmaker discussed his views on cinema with the Associated Press last week, including his work ethic and his confusion about Quentin Tarantino's forthcoming retirement. After the interviewer told Scorsese that he "must be built differently" than Tarantino, he responded, "I am."

"[Tarantino is] a writer... it's a different thing," Scorsese said. "I come up with stories, I get attracted to stories through other people — all different means, different ways. And so I think it's a different process... I respect writers and I wish I could just be in a room and create these novels. Not films, novels. Long stories."

Tarantino has repeatedly stated that he plans to quit feature filmmaking after his tenth feature, citing his personal disappointment with older filmmakers' work from the later periods of their careers.

Scorsese explained how curiosity is key to maintaining his creativity. "I'm curious about everything still," he said. "That's one of the things. If I'm curious about something I think I'll find a way. If I hold out and hold up, I'll find a way to try to make something of it on film, but I have to be curious about the subject. My curiosity is still there. I couldn't speak for Quentin Tarantino or others who are able to create this work in their own world."

Earlier this year, Scorsese referenced having a new appreciation for a statement by Akira Kurosawa from late in the Japanese filmmaker's life. "'I'm only now beginning to see the possibility of what cinema could be, and it's too late,'" Scorsese remembered Kurosawa saying when he accepted his Academy Award in 1990.

Elaborating on Kurosawa's comments with the outlet, The Departed filmmaker said he was "curious" when he heard the 82 year old director at the Academy Awards. "I said, 'What does he mean? He's already explored so much!' I've lived long enough now to be his age, and worked long enough, and I think I understand now because there is no limit. The limit is in yourself, and so these are just tools, the lights and the camera and that sort of thing. How much further can you push or explore of who you are?"

He went on to share sage wisdom about maximizing one's creative process. "When it comes to telling a narrative story… you're gonna have to dig into yourself, or allow yourself to let that expression flow… and that means being quieter, being alone, meditating, whatever," he said. "I'm trying to keep alive the sense that cinema is an art form, and many people believe that it's the 20th century art form, it's not the 21st century, it's gonna become something else, but… it should be taken that seriously."

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