A word of caution from Paul Schrader

Occasionally people ask me about whether they should get involved in screenwriting or filmmaking. I usually say, “If you can find any happiness or satisfaction in another field of endeavor, you should do so, because the real reason to get involved in the arts is because you have no choice—you have issues that you need to address through fantasy and fiction.” That said, there is also a very commercial incentive for being in the arts, but I’ve never really given that too much thought, because that was never my intent. I got involved as a form of self-therapy, and I stay in it that way.

—Paul Schrader, in Tales From the Script