From American magazine, April 1921, 34.
[This article does not constitute an interview. However, in a sidebar, Griffith is asked to comment upon what he thinks interests an audience when it goes to the movies. Those comments are reprinted here.]
“I think the greatest thing in the world is unselfish love. The love between a boy and a girl is beautiful, and I like to show it. But love, in its greatest sense, is much more than just that. It is loyalty and sacrifice, forgiveness and service. The one word which covers it all is unselfishness. An unselfish love, that trusts and strives, and, if necessary, forgives, but never fails— that is the great fundamental appeal. I believe that every human being, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, city-bred or country-bred, good or bad, responds to that appeal.
“Take the scene in Way Down East, where the hero leaps from one cake of ice to another, running, stumbling, slipping into the water, trying to rescue the unconscious girl, who is in instant danger of being crushed in the rush of the ice floe. It is a thrilling exhibition of courage and daring. But the big thing is the motive. He is not doing it for any commonplace end. He is not even trying to save his own life. He is risking his life to save the girl he loves. And it is because an unselfish love drives him to supreme courage that the scene lifts the spectators out of themselves.”