Virgil Abloh Quotes

I like to come to the set with very strong ideas and strong opinions about how to do things. And I like also dealing with somebody who's like that.

I pride myself in collaborating and being a creative director, and creative direction isn't putting my opinion first. It's supporting an artist so they get the most out of the project.

Often, particularly towards the end of the process, I think of myself less as a theatre director and more as someone who just directs the traffic. My job is to move the ideas and bits of the show into the places where they work best. Sometimes my job is also to say, 'No.'

The director is the ultimate creative arbiter of what's going to happen. And as a director myself, you really appreciate collaborating with people who are trying to help you find what you need and what you want.

I worked very hard on those movies but there was some creative connection that wasn't being made.

Basically, I see myself as a maker of things who knows how to support other makers of things. At the end of the day, I am just committed to helping put good stories out into the world in whatever role is appropriate and needed for that particular project.

Producing should be a creative responsibility.

Film is a very collaborative medium. If you're smart enough, you learn how to maintain your vision while drawing resourcefully from all the people around you.

That's what I learned most about directing on my own - you've got to build a family, a filmmaking family.

I never wanted to be a creative director.

I try to just focus on what feels right to me when I am conceiving it, conceptualizing, designing, etc. and then talk it through with the team and listen to what they have to say. This kind of thing is a team effort, and working with a great team is the most important part of filmmaking for me.

Design-wise, I look at everything. If I don't personally design it, I'll review it. I'm kind of creative director of the firm.

Whether it's a TV show or a music video, the seed of the idea is what's driving my decisions, not the format or the outcome.

When I ask for help with my creativity, I get it.

I do a lot of brainstorming with my editors.

Once you start trying to sell creativity, you're always going to run into the problem that the people selling it aren't as creative as the people making it, and the people making it don't know how to talk business with the people trying to sell it.

They want more production and they want it cheaper. But no matter what happens, the creative idea will be perpetuated by somebody who comes up with a vision. I don't care if there are three ceos - it takes one guy with an idea.

Absolutely, you rise and fall based on your creative team.

I think you always win in storytelling when you let the best creative ideas guide you.

Game design has always been a secondary passion. I don't know how to program, though, so I'm at this strange crossroads where I'm like, 'I wonder if I can convince people who know what they're doing to hear me out on one of my ideas.'

If a director is really a director, I think he's interested in more than one thing.

I had a fascination with the back side of the business, and the creative process always fascinated me. Vince gave me an opportunity in '98 to sit in the production meetings. He would talk creative with me, and we had this creative rapport.

If a director can't figure out what they might get from me or whether he or she wants to work with me based on what I've done, then I can't tell them anything more than what they don't know already.

The challenge for a director - and I think a lot of directors feel the same way - is that today we have to put on a producer's hat, too. Meaning, you have to sometimes think of it being 'business show,' not just 'show business.'

You have to have that core creative team around you who's going to support your vision, and challenge and evolve it.