Jason Reitman Quotes

A lot of music you might listen to is pretty vapid, it doesn't always deal with our deeper issues. These are the things I'm interested in now, particularly at my age.

I can't do a role or character unless I have lived that character. For me, the best teacher is life.

It was not just that Ross Macdonald taught us how to write; he did something much more, he taught us how to read, and how to think about life, and maybe, in some small, but mattering way, how to live.

As a reader, I much prefer to read a book where people embody all kinds of ideas and everybody is making mistakes.

The function of the novel is the exploration of the human condition. Really, that's what it's all about.

I never write my stories as a wake-up call as such. I simply explore the kinds of situations that I find personally challenging by placing characters into situations that challenge them in similar ways.

The protagonists that I've played tend to be people who make trouble. Or even if they don't make it, they certainly disrupt things. It's fun to do that in life as well. But I don't think I ever played myself.

I look to find the heart and soul of people, of my characters. I look for the truth of them and the truths about life that are presented through them.

Part of life is learning what to be ashamed of and what to be proud of.

Playing four years of college, you learn a lot; you learn more about yourself than anything.

If you're going to become a better person, do it in high school.

I look for a layered character who has problems and issues - which, by the way, we all do have.

I may have got a little carried away and many critics found fault with some aspects of the film, but as a coming of age film of a character, 'Vaaranam Ayiram' worked with the audience.

I had to learn some hard lessons in my early days because I was a bit of a showman, a kind of Jekyl and Hyde character.

Going away to West Brom, I learned, too. You learn things about football. You learn about yourself. You get to assess the situation from the outside, looking in.

Everybody's in a situation; everybody has a story. It's about finding out why.

I think an actor without life experiences is empty.

For me, Miranda has always been a much deeper character than the three-minute videos I put online.

I think the better you know yourself as a person, the better an actor you can be.

We have all made mistakes in this life. How we learn from our mistakes is the measure of who we are.

The battle against pride in the heart is lifelong, so humility should become an ever more deeply seated attitude of living

Every single experience, every single thing that's happened in my life, struggle, obstacle, trials and tribulations, I think they've all molded me to become the character and the person who I am.

That experience which does not make us better makes us worse.

I'm really excited to act again because when I started out, there was an innocent sort of perception of the world that was coming though me, and I think now through a lot of experience and life and understanding, I've come full circle to having a purer response to things. So my craft will be really interesting to work from this place because I think acting is about being in tune with yourself - or maybe the struggle to be in tune with yourself.

When you're reading a novel, I think the reason you care about how any given plot turns out is that you take it as a data point in the big story of how the world works. Does such-and-such a kind of guy get the girl in the end? Does adultery ever bring happiness? How do winners become winners?