James L. Brooks Quotes

There are no great scripts - just great films.

I think I'm drawn to films more as a director with a directorial mind even as an actor. I make movies to make the films, not to act.

When I was shooting 'Mud,' every day was my favourite! I had so much fun on this film and loved working with all the cast and crew! It was a great experience.

My perception of making a movie before I started making movies was that it would be like 'Spy Kids'.

I think what makes a good actor's director is the same thing that makes a good director. Acting is just one of the trades necessary to make a movie.

What I love most is the art, is making art, acting and being on set, and being a part of the process of making a movie.

'Lost in Translation' was a year of my life, if not more, and then 'Marie Antoinette' was about three years of my life.

Very often, things that people may think come from the writer, very often don't. There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen when it comes to making a movie. When you hear a line of dialogue that sounds kind of tinny, it's pretty easy to cite the screenwriter. But there's a lot of stuff that goes into making a movie.

The great thing about film is you start and finish. It's a journey that lasts so long, TV lasts a long time.

A great screenplay makes everybody step up to the bar and deliver.

I'm in awe of directors like the Coen brothers who can shoot their script and edit it, and that's the movie. They're not discovering the movie in postproduction. They're editing the script they shot.

I don't make movies because I love to act. I make movies because I like to make movies, and I like to be a part of that process.

I loved making Pure Country. It was a great learning experience for me, seeing another part of the entertainment industry.

I judge movies on how much fun I had while I was doing them. I had a great time on 'The Right Stuff.' Doing that was fantastic. And there was the year I did 'The Rookie' and 'Far From Heaven,' which was amazing because those two different roles were just so far apart.

I realized the exciting place was behind the camera with the producer, director and so on.

I make a movie because it's something that inspires me.

What's great about making movies is the sort of additive process of bringing people together and having an idea and watching the idea be added to and at the end you have this thing.

I'm not a huge kind of visual director. For me, it's all about the acting. There's no greater buzz than working with actors and seeing what they can do and how much they can improve on what you'd written. That will always be on the top of my list. It's a real privilege to see it live before anyone else sees it.

Being behind the camera is where I feel comfortable. I've found something that I feel I, as 'Michael,' can be as confident in as 'Johnny' was on the stage. It's great being part of the creative process. You're right at the start of an idea, and you get to see it all the way through till the end.

We're trying to make a movie that's interesting.

Filming 'Bad Santa' was really where I learned everything that I knew at that point about movies. That was really the first big thing that I had done.

Filmmaking is such a collaborative medium.

The great thing about films is that you have access to this whole world of experts who teach you the skills your character's supposed to have.

I know nothing about making a movie.

I've always been fascinated with everything behind the camera and in front.