Jean-Marc Vallee Quotes

After I left college, I went to work at the Royal Opera House in London, which became a real catalyst for me because it made me realize that I was interested in cinema and in the way life is thrust at you. So I started making films.

I gave up the idea of having a career when I was 24. Sounds glamorous, but I've been doing things since then, and part of those adventures was to make films because I realised I was actually quite good at it and I enjoyed it.

I chose when I was 30 to change my life entirely and become a director and sit in the dark and that's what I love doing.

I was in college, and very disappointed. I majored in commercial art and interior design for three or four years. At that time, it seemed the thing I really wanted to do, production design, just wasn't available in the U.K., so I turned to music.

Since I quit banking, all my major life decisions, when they could, have revolved around writing.

I feel 100% sure that I have the career that I have today because of independent filmmaking.

It was easy for me to leave acting for school, because I wasn't really in it as an adolescent for fulfilling reasons.

I'm 23, so I'm not done with my life. But acting, definitely, out of what I've done so far, makes me feel the most alive and is very invigorating and thrilling. So I figured I might as well try it for a while.

I'm going to do whatever interests me. Look, writing 'Rabbit Hole' came out of an interest in diversifying my portfolio, frankly.

I think, ultimately, looking back now, acting wasn't satisfying me 100%.

Nobody should be anything, but because I once had a different profession and I'm interested in writing, I took it upon me.

I will always be an actress. I couldn't see myself without acting. But I'd love to direct and keep writing. I don't think one has to be in place of the other.

Now I am ready to set new goals and start a new career for myself outside of the ring.

I was never meant to sit at home.

I was never meant to sit at home.

I didn't plan to be a director until I was 35. For years I wanted to do anything but!

For a few years, I thought I was putting show business behind me. I was busy doing other things in life, particularly with politics. I was not out looking for films, really. I lost interest.

I think everything you do, whether it's low budget things when you're first starting out or full feature films or when you're working with Hollywood, you're always learning, all the time.

I feel one should do things which pleases them, and my progression into super model then to an actress and now to an entrepreneur is based on this.

I guess, in a sense, 'Audition' was a film that gave me an opportunity that I hadn't had up until that point. So that's definitely one that is important to me. Then there's 'Visitor Q' that kind of taught me that there are some kinds of films that can only be made as low-budget films that really wouldn't work as anything else.

I don't want to plan my career. That would be a business plan. Filmmaking is not a business plan.

I'm a frustrated would-be architect who stumbled into the would-be business of making movies.

When I left university I was sure that I was going to be a painter. Then I had a crisis, a revelation. I saw Dolce Vita and my mind was blown by it, by the synthesis. I realised I wanted to be a filmmaker and started making films. I was writing screenplays and couldn't get money because my work was so uncommercial. I got married and started writing fiction. What was wonderful is that it gave me my freedom because no-one can tell me I can't work. Novels have become equally important to me as films. I consider myself a storyteller and passionately engaged in both of those disciplines.

Once I got out of architecture school I decided not to be an architect, I just started my own little design studio.

The time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo.