s o l i t u d e

The name Lady Bird is a truly mysterious thing for me. I was writing the script, and I couldn’t figure out the character for some reason. I put it aside, and then something… I wrote at the top of the page, “Why won’t you call me Lady Bird? You promised you would.” I have no idea where that came from at all. I genuinely don’t know, and then later I realised there’s a nursery rhyme – “ladybird, ladybird, fly away home.” I think that had somehow lodged itself in my head, and that’s what came out. That’s, to me, part of the mystery of the creative process. Sometimes your unconscious knows more than you do. I remember writing it down, and thinking, “Who would do that? Who is this person who makes everyone call her Lady Bird, if that’s not her name?” I went through the normal feelings of self-doubt – I was like, is this the dumbest thing anyone’s ever written? But you kind of trust that if you’re excited about it, maybe it’s right.

“never forget that softness is strength, unflinching / against the knife and it is also the knife.”