Steven Soderbergh is interviewed in the February 2009 issue of Esquire on his upcoming two-part, four-and-a-half hour biographical film Che, which stars Benicio Del Toro.

In the interview, the director talks about how much he admires Che Guevara’s work ethic, though not necessarily his politics, how the man “spent every waking hour trying to shape the world in a certain way,” and that “he just felt like there wasn’t enough time to do all the things that needed to be done.”

Which led the interviewer to ask:

ESQ: Sounds like you.

SS: Yeah, except what I do isn’t important. That’s the only difference.

ESQ: Don’t you think art makes the world a better place?

SS: What tragedy has it kept from happening? Tell that to the 13-year-old girl from Somalia who got stoned to death last week after being raped by three men and then convicted of adultery, buried up to her head, and stoned in front of a crowd of 1,000 people. If the collected works of Shakespeare can’t keep that from happening, then what is it worth? Honestly?

I’d already heard of that incident, but reading about it late last night in that context with that contrast took my breath away.

Too depressed to read any further, I just went to bed.