I loved photography and everybody said it was a crazy thing to do because in those days nobody made it into the film business. I mean, unless you were related to somebody there was no way in.

Lucas is recalling the social and professional barriers he perceived when he first became serious about visual storytelling. The quote frames photography as his entry point into cinema and emphasizes how closed the film industry seemed—dominated by connections and family ties—especially to an outsider without nepotistic access. It also captures a recurring theme in Lucas’s career narrative: persistence in pursuing a “crazy” creative ambition despite discouragement. Read this way, the remark is less a literal claim about impossibility than a memory of gatekeeping and the intimidation felt by aspiring filmmakers before film schools, independent production pathways, and new technologies broadened routes into the industry.