Burt Reynolds Quotes

Brittany Murphy... who knows if she's going to be around. Kirsten Dunst, I think she's really boring. Reese Witherspoon? She can open a movie.

At the movies, when I see Sandra Bullock or Winona Ryder, I think, 'I can do that!'

It's not fair to use movies that weren't creatively successful as a reason why something won't work.

It's not about Hollywood, it's always about a good script for me.

The book by William Goldman, Adventures In The Screen Trade, great, awesome book. He talks about this very thing - that you can't get a star to do a part that's not what their public expects. And Sandy's Bullock not like that. She's taken a lot of chances over the years. And Patrick Swayze certainly wasn't like that. But I mean, maybe that is true. Maybe that's exactly why they didn't like All About Steve.

I'm a huge fan of the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and his work, and I knew he was going to be an amazing actor's director, based on the performances that I saw in his movies.

Hollywood's a business, and until someone puts their finger on you and decides you're the guy who's going to carry that movie, it's not going to happen.

We enjoyed such amazing success on Sex and the City. You don't expect success on that level, it was such a big deal, and it was so intense and wonderful that it is hard for anything else to live up to it, quite frankly. So now I just try to have fun and work with interesting people. I think that there is a perception that certain films won't be popular. So it was great that The Devil Wears Prada did really well.

I didn't know about the Bond girl thing. I was approached very quickly, boom, boom, boom, it happened.

I'm considered to some degree a successful director working in Hollywood, making films my way but using studio financing. But with almost every single one, I get praised up the wazoo by people who never would have financed the films. It's: "Gee, this movie is so new and different - what do you want to do next?" "This." "Oh, that's too new and different."

I never expect anything. I am always amazed at why anybody goes to any movie or why anybody doesn't go to any movie. Any movie you make, you make it because you're hoping somebody wants to see it, but you never know.

The one that sticks out in my mind and has all along was the New York Times piece on Melania Trump.Calling her a mannequin and a trophy wife, which if anybody had ever said that about any - Michelle Obama was a lawyer. But Melania Trump has been a successful businesswoman. She speaks several languages. A mannequin and a trophy wife and it was just - fine, they were allowed to say that about her.

At the Academy Award Dinners all the actors and actresses in Hollywood gather around to see what someone else thinks about their acting besides their press agents.

I think that if you do an American movie it's important to earn some money, but in a stupid way, to be respected.

[Bad Influence]was David Koepp's first big screenplay. It was actually a writing sample that was around town to get David work at the time, and Steve Tisch - now the owner of the New York Giants - found it, loved it, and together we put it together. But I'd say that would be the one I'd tell people to go and look at if they haven't seen it.

Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't. I never know how successful a movie is going to be - when you make a movie you're always hoping for the best.

Hollywood's old trick: repeat a successful formula until it dies.

I feel like movies when they work they'll find an audience.

If I was American, I think I'd live in New York, because I like that East Coast mentality. There's nothing wrong with Hollywood. If you want to be a big time filmmaker, you should go to Hollywood.

Somebody once said that Hollywood is based on a lot of producers deliberately making bad movies, and every now and then somebody gets lucky.

Most films that I do, whether successful or not, just fade away. They have their moment in the sun, then they are gone. 'Trainspotting' did not, and especially with journalists. So whenever I launched a new film, I'd end up talking about 'Trainspotting.'

You can always make a good film but for it to be successful, you need God's blessing.

The more successful you become, the longer the yardstick people use to measure you by.

The formula for a successful film is simple: good script, good direction, a dedicated cast and a fantastic crew. If you have all of these elements then the rest will fall into place.

Virginia Mayo had kind of a small role in The Best Years of Our Lives, but you got the whole character in one scene. Where are those parts? I was talking to somebody about great actors: Morgan Freeman's name came up, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington. And I realized, there're no black actresses. Where's there a black actress who's been extremely successful in the past 10 years?