Great books about film/creativity

[Spaceman Spiff]

Inspired by being gifted the excellent "The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film", I wanted to ask you guys if you knew of any other very illuminating books on the creative process viewed on the interior of the artist. Obviously, your tastes in film (or hell music/literature as well, if you also have recommendations for those artistic domains) will shape your answers, but I want to make it clear that I am not interested so much in a compendium of facts or a biography. It really has to be a personal and interesting account on the nature of their work, and how they get about creating a piece of art. I have about 75$ in amazon gift certificates and figure I might as well use them for something positive and inspirational.

Many thanks!

[Irish]

These aren't too technical, although some are biographical.


Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
by Anne Lamott

On Writing
by Stephen King

Scorsese on Scorsese
by David Thompson

When The Shooting Stops ... The Cutting Begins: A Film Editor's Story
by Ralph Rosenblum

Alan Moore: Storyteller
by Millidge Gary Spencer

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
by Twyla Tharp

[Irish]

Also, if you're interested in literature, then check out the Paris Review interviews.

It's four volumes in book form, and covers the likes of Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Kurt Vonnegut, Elizabeth Bishop, Richard Price, Joan Didion, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Philip Larkin, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Stephen King, Robert Lowell, Ralph Ellison, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Maya Angelou, Haruki Murakami, Paul Auster, Marilynne Robinson, and more.*

Some of these are available online here:

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/

[Spaceman Spiff]

Hurm. Not a big fan of any of those dudes (save early Scorsese).

Those Paris interview links look pretty damn sweet though. Thanks!

[Duncan]

Tarkovsky's Sculpting in Time is pretty great. Not sure what you think of his films.

[Ezee E]

I'll second Scorsese on Scorsese.

[ledfloyd]

that twyla tharp book is fantastic.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Tarkovsky's Sculpting in Time is pretty great. Not sure what you think of his films.

I get more out of them academically, than I really do in terms of enjoyment as a spectator. This looks pretty cool though. Tarkovsky was definitely a pretty interesting guy.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Making Movies by Sidney Lumet might be a little too clinical for what you're after, but he speaks only of his own films, and his advice is practical, enlightening, and efficient.