Books on acting and directing

I'm not interested in how to write to how to lead actors. I'm interested in lives of writers or directors or actors. That is much more interesting. I started out reading books on acting. Method acting, Stanislavski's teachings. I read one book by David Mamet that changed my views. True and False. The learning I got from that book told what acting is without another need to learn more: Acting is about the self and there is only so much to read about finding your own style.  I never read another book on acting theory again after that. I now read on the lives of actors more than their style.

I moved to reading books on  producing movies. That led me to read books on Producers like Lawrence Turman and Robert Evans. Reading those books taught me what I needed to know more than a book on producing movies. It taught me what goes on in the life of a Producer.

That lead me to read books on Directors and directing. I read every book I could possibly buy and borrow. I read books on Orson Welles, David Lean, David Lynch- my heroes. Epic moviemaking.
 
This explains a lot about my style. I'm go with the flow. I realize there are things I won't be able to change. The picture in my head is not the picture people will see. They will see 0.0001% of what I see. That is my art to try to get people to think for themselves and feel a movie. We all see movies. What the emotion that I am trying to show is far more valuable than visually entertaining stories with only small plot.

I don't try to think about what people will say or who will like it or who will not. Van Gogh barely survived making his art, and only some people felt his genius. So there is only that. Make good art. Forget what someone tells you to do things a certain way. You will learn for yourself and become a better artist for it.