Quote Of The Day By Steven Spielberg: 'i've Avoided Therapy Because Movies Are My Therapy.'

Niko Tavernise/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

Do we even need to state the obvious and wax poetic over how very few — if any — storytellers have influenced the movie business the way Steven Spielberg has over the course of his prolific career? It'd be one thing if the Cincinnati, Ohio, native simply came of age during the so-called "New Hollywood" movement in the late 1960s and 1970s, shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow greats like George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. Early works such as "Jaws" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" speak for themselves, after all, to say nothing of the unprecedented run of success that would come in the decades that followed. But doing so while putting his own life and personal interests and anxieties on the silver screen for the rest of the world to see and judge for themselves? That's the kind of chutzpah that separates a good artist from an all-time great one.

So, it should come as no surprise that filmmaking would be such a safe haven for Spielberg. By now, everyone knows about his instinctive grasp of how best to frame a shot, block a scene, or direct an ensemble of the biggest stars on the planet. And if that were all he excelled in, the man would still go down as one of the most talented technical directors who ever lived. His ability to take the fundamentals of moviemaking and filter it through the unique lens of what makes Spielberg who he is, however, is the reason why he's a living legend.

In other words? Men will literally reenact the most traumatizing and formative moments of their childhood on the biggest canvass in front of an audience of millions rather than go to therapy. And that's precisely why he's our entry for today's quote of the day.

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"I've avoided therapy because movies are my therapy." — Steven Spielberg

If ever there were a single quote that could represent the breadth of an artist's entire oeuvre, this would be it. Steven Spielberg stated as much in a documentary by Susan Lacy titled "Spielberg," which delves into how his upbringing and youth in Phoenix, Arizona inspired his eventual life's work, the influences he carried with him upon his journey to Hollywood, and the making of several of the famous filmmaker's most memorable efforts. He delivered this line in 2017, five full years before we saw this come to life for ourselves in his semi-autobiographical "The Fabelmans," but it was apparent even then how succinctly this captured his entire approach to storytelling.

Not that we can fully condone the idea of eschewing healthy and professional settings to improve one's mental health, but we can certainly see where Spielberg is coming from. Not just anyone can be afforded the privilege to work through their most complex, innermost feelings on the grandest scale imaginable. Still, the rest of us are fortunate that The Beard opted to do exactly this, pouring out his very essence into the movies he made (and continues to make to this day, as evidenced by his similarly personal "Disclosure Day") the only way he knows how. Who needs therapy when you can instead use fiction to interrogate the trauma of your parents' divorce, admit to yourself that art is the most intoxicating drug of life, or even explore your beliefs about alien life walking among us?

Niko Tavernise/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

You have to give props to Steven Spielberg for putting his money where his mouth is. It would be the easiest thing in the world to lean on a cliché as a crutch and pontificate about how one's art is their most effective path to self-reflection. After all, it's difficult to find a one-liner that goes harder among film nerds than, "I've avoided therapy because movies are my therapy." Instead, the acclaimed writer/director has actually walked the walk throughout each and every one of his movies.

For many of us, "The Fabelmans" is the key to unlocking his methodology of cinematic therapy. Looking back, it suddenly becomes easy to see where much of his recurring imagery and interests came from: his fascination with trains, his tendency to depict absentee fathers, and even that awful-looking bob that Cate Blanchett sports in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" — eerily similar to Michelle Williams's hairstyle as Mitzi Fabelman, Spielberg's blatant stand-in for his own mother. These surface-level connections merely hint at much more fascinating material underneath, encouraging us viewers to fall down this rabbit hole right alongside Spielberg himself and wrestle with topics that are both universal and highly specific at once.

Suddenly, watching past and present Spielberg movies with this perspective in mind opens up a Pandora's box of possibilities. You can't help but draw parallels with Indiana Jones' daddy issues and ultimate reconciling in "The Last Crusade," the awestruck wonder directed towards cinematic miracles in "Jurassic Park," and, considering his Jewish background, the uncomfortably topical depiction of Israelis and Palestinians in "Munich." Thank goodness Steven Spielberg decided to process his life through his art — that way, we could do the same with ours, too.

Niko Tavernise/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

• "I dream for a living. Once a month the sky falls on my head, I come to, and I see another movie I want to make."
• "I always like to think of the audience when I am directing. Because I am the audience."
• "I think every film I make that puts characters in jeopardy is me purging my own fears, sadly only to re-engage with them shortly after the release of the picture. I'll never make enough films to purge them all."
• "Whether in success or in failure, I'm proud of every single movie I've directed."
• "Every time I go to a movie, it's magic, no matter what the movie's about.
• "I've always been very hopeful, which I guess isn't strange coming from me. I don't want to call myself an optimist. I want to say that I've always been full of hope. I've never lost that. I have a lot of hope for this country and for the entire world."