Barry Jenkins Quotes

I just did one movie and there was no career for me, anyway.

'The Road to Wellville'... it had Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda, directed by Alan Parker. I hadn't been doing all that well, and I was thrilled to get it, and it just didn't work. It was a terrible movie, but I don't think it's anyone's fault.

Yes, 'Aagadu' was a failure. I was dejected for a couple of months, since there was a lot at stake.

I love the romcom. I thought I had a career playing the best friend. What happened to that? It's really sad to me.

There was a movie I was trying to make right after 'Monster,' a bigger behemoth: the Chuck Yeager story. It was a life dream, but it just didn't line up. We just had issues with the life rights, ultimately.

Making movies seemed so impossible as far as getting my ideas funded.

I went from someone who really wanted to perform from a really young age - that was all I knew - to going on 'X-Factor', which I thought was going to be the most incredible experience ever and it becoming the worst experience of my life.

A large part of the creative process is tolerating the gap between the glorious image you had in your mind and the sad thing you've just made.

When I saw 'Jurassic Park' as a kid, that was the first time I thought about making movies for a living.

We were to work in a film titled 'Zabardast'. Unfortunately, this film didn't take off. After this, I never got another chance to work with him, I regret not having worked with Dilip Kumar.

I stayed in the East for about a year after I graduated. Then, I came out to Los Angeles and started knocking on doors and working my way up. This was the '70s. I had been told how tough it was for a woman trying to make it in Hollywood, but I sort of had blinders on. I just did things anyway.

I left my cushy job as an engineer in New Delhi in 2008 to pursue acting in Mumbai. I figured roles will start pouring in as soon as I landed in the city, but my bubble burst quickly.

By 2013, at the age of 29, I was failing. I had left two good jobs in succession to complete a novel I'd been tooling around with since 2009, had enrolled in a graduate programme in Texas, as far away from home as possible, to finish it - and yet: what did I have to show for it after five years of work?

I think one of the saving illusions of the film business is everything seems like it's about to happen. It's always about to happen. It's only looking back that you see the wasteland.

When I joined the film industry I looked forward to different roles, unfortunately that did not materialise.

When I came to New York for the draft in '89, they told me I should be like 10 and 15, and it didn't happen. So I was very disappointed, like, nobody wants me.

Missing the chance to go to the 2007 World Cup was the biggest disappointment of my career.

My first film was a big dud at the box office, and my second film did decently. I used to wonder how it would feel to have a hit film. I thought I'd be larger than life, but I'm not feeling anything I imagined. It's a completely different experience.

After so many years of rejection, I felt acting would have to become a hobby rather than a full-time profession.

I had given up on acting because I would go for auditions every day, but nothing would happen.

The only reason I came to L.A. in the first place was to tell stories and make movies. Whatever way you can do that - if you can do that - at whatever level, that's rewarding.

I was waiting for L.A. to always become something important. I gave up... I left in 1974.

I got the 'Stranger Things' script, like, a week before NBC canceled 'State of Affairs.' I really had this moment where I'm like, 'I'm done.' My neuroses is very sophisticated: I was like, 'I am done. Hollywood is done with David Harbour. They are finished.'

Sometimes, waiting for too long for the right film may fall flat.

I had no release in 2013. I worked on four films; none of them saw the light of day.