“I’m not sure why but colors in dreams aren’t very clear or vibrant—there’s not much contrast. That’s why most people think they dream in black and white, which is rather silly because it’s so artificial and a long way from the way the brain actually understands the world. . . . Color is a difficult thing to remember. What I mean is that if you ask someone to describe something they’ve just seen, often they’ll make a mistake about the color. My wife just came in. Do you remember the color of her clothes?

Black pants and . . .

And her top? Was it red, green, or white? It was beige! People say, ‘Ah! Today I dreamt in color,’ but this is only when those colors took on some dramatic importance—like blood for example.”

—Roman Polanski, from an interview with Richel Ciment, Michel Perez, and Roger Tailleur, 1969; Roman Polanski Interviews, edited by Paul Cronin, 2005.