I just found this awesome little interview with film maker Francis Ford Coppola (via Boing Boing).
http://the99percent.com/articles/6973/Francis-Ford-Coppola-On-Risk-Money-Craft-Collaboration

A lot of what he has to say is incredible apropos across many creative fields, including illustration.
He also hits on a lot of topics that we have been speaking about quite recently here on Muddy Colors.

“The cinema language happened by experimentation – by people not knowing what to do. But unfortunately, after 15-20 years, it became a commercial industry. People made money in the cinema, and then they began to say to the pioneers, ‘Don’t experiment. We want to make money. We don’t want to take chances.’

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before? I always like to say that cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby. You have to take a risk. “