John Ford was loathe to discuss his work with interviewers. He was evasive and pooh-poohed any thought that he was an artist. This stance is belied once you watch the films and study the the productions histories of his movies.
In this, he was similar to many filmmakers of his generation: George Cukor and Howard Hawks were equally dismissive of the questions scholars and fans threw at them late in their careers.
Alfred Hitchcock was an exception: once Bazin, Rohmer, Chabrol and the rest of the Cahiers crowd started writing about him, he became the master of the interview. He even admitted that some of the things they wrote about his work (especailly Bazin) caused him to re-examine his own films.
The next generation -- Mankiewicz, Wilder, Huston, Ray -- were much more comfortable thinking and talking about themselves as artists.
Brian dauth Queer Buddhist Resister