Sacred Haven of Debauchery

Happiness will come when authors can create what they want, and fans can enjoy what they want, without third parties interfering.

Unfortunately, that is a utopia.

And first and foremost, not because of censorship, but because of economic reasons.

When an author is advised from above what the final product should be, art diminishes.

It used to be "director's cinema," now it has become "producer's cinema."

In the past, a perfumer created without regard for the crowd's opinion, and often very unexpected fragrances resulted, which ultimately "took off." Now there is a client's brief specifying roughly what the fragrance should turn out like.

When a perfumer is given a sample of the finished product, he becomes a craftsman. Today, most are like that. But they don't have to take responsibility for what perfume ends up on store shelves: that's what marketers and focus groups are for. Working at Hermès, I took that responsibility upon myself.

Games used to be made the way developers wanted; now they adapt to the publisher's opinion.