Takeshi Kitano Quotes

I think every American kid grows up dreaming about being in the movies. That's completely normal for us. But I mostly wanted to be a writer, and I got taught the scriptwriting program.

Anyone who has an imagination can write a book - it's cheap to do - but movies are big money.

I guess I considered myself just sort of a sketch comedian, you know? Actual screenwriting hadn't really occurred to me as a viable job - I didn't really know anything about it.

For sure, without question, the writing is better on TV pound for pound than movies because the businesses have changed so much. So all the great writers would rather work for TV, and they do.

I've been working with a lot of people out in Hollywood on writing scripts, screenplays, directing, producing, and making music.

I've been in various roles in TV - writer, producer, associate director.

I'd love to do writing for Hollywood.

I'd never done any film or television. Well, I'd done one little stupid commercial in Boston when I was doing theater, but that was it.

I love making movies, I love the differentness of it, I love writing. But I've always liked television. I grew up on television.

I wanted to work on a cable show and with a writer/director because that's a much more fulfilling and freeing experience, as an actor.

Whether I'm in front of the camera, behind the camera, at my computer writing a novel or a screenplay, as long as I get to entertain someone out there, I'm happy.

Great writing attracts great actors. It attracts money. Without a great script, you have nothing.

I never think of myself as a celebrity - or even an actor, actually. I think of myself as a writer-director.

I'm not a comedian. I didn't study sketch comedy; my background isn't that.

I've never considered myself a comedian. I'm a comedic actor.

To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script.

To write, you have to know how to act and know about directing. To act, you also need to know how to write and direct.

You gotta have the balls to go out there and be funny, man.

When we graduated [ from Cambridge], we were grabbed right into television. I was grabbed straight into the practice of writing comedy. It was all writing and performing. You wrote something in order for you to perform it.

I've never done anything comedic. In all the years I've been an actor, I've never delivered one comedic line.

I think politicians and comedians have a lot in common. One is a group of approval-seeking narcissists who will say and do anything to be liked... and comedians are always talking about politics.

If I'm not on tour, I can run down to the comedy club and do a little stand-up. If you're an actor, you can't go - I guess there's forms of it.

I was into writing and directing. I was a bit of a reluctant actor. I would always ask friends to shoot or direct their movies, but then they'd want me to be in them.

[Stand-up] might be ballsy, but I'd rather not be an actor. Actors are tools.

I was a screenwriting major in college, and really wanted to do that after I graduated, but there are no job listings for that, as we all know. I had many classmates that made it in the business, but stand-up comedy was my way in, and my first film 'Sleepwalk with Me' was based on those autobiographical experiences.