Jon Watts Quotes

Let me say that the path I did take for a brief period of my life was not of reckless drug use, hurting others, but it was a path of quiet rebellion, of a little experimentation of a darker side of my confusion in a confusing world, lost in the midst of finding my identity.

As people get older, we all know, you get married and you have a child and that becomes your family, but when you're 16 years old, especially, your family is your friends.

I still connect with original emotions. 'Night Moves' was written about 1961 or 1962 when I was in high school, and it was about what my friends and I did in that period.

In the summer we graduated we flipped out completely, drinking beer, cruising in our cars and beating up each other. It was a crazy summer. That's when I started to be interested in girls.

I think that the beauty of 'Spud' is that everyone can connect to the character of Spud in so many ways. It's about real experiences that happen to kids all the time.

I've seen 'Fried Green Tomatoes' too many times. I love life stories told in flashback.

I loved 'Junebug.' It was one of my favorite films, my favorite type of film.

Back in high school, there was something fun and dangerous about inhabiting a different personality.

All teens are in trouble in one form or another.

I visualized high school as being like 'Saved By the Bell.' I decided I would do all the things they did on that show.

I watched a lot of movies about teenagers, including 'The Last Picture Show,' 'American Graffiti,' 'Rumblefish.' It's one of my favorite genres.

'Freaks and Geeks' was my favorite show when it was on, by a wide measure. And that's the show I wanted to do. I noodled with the idea of doing a show about teenagers that told small stories, small moments of personal growth.

A lot of kids are bullied because of their sexuality, and that breaks my heart, because they're going to have to - high school's hard enough to overcome. Middle school is hard enough to overcome when we get out of it. They say life is what you spend your time getting over because of high school, you know what I mean?

I'd never made a teen comedy in my life.

I'm completely obsessed with Andrew Smith's 'Winger.' A great, hilarious, and moving story.

Yeah, 'Feed the Dog' is just a really fun, teenage movie with Nat Wolff and Selena Gomez and all these other great people. It's just so silly-funny, and my character's super-fun.

Teens are not like the weird, dumb dwarves you have around your house. They are actually you when you were younger. Why not write a book which is as sophisticated as a book for an adult, but is about the concerns that teenagers actually have?

I'd just sit with Dee Dee on the corner off of Queens Boulevard and drink and insult people and stuff. That's when I got kicked out of my house. My mother told me it was for my own good.

When I first saw 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High,' I thought: That's what my life is like. That's my day-to-day.

I feel like the eight most at-risk years for young men or young women are the four they're in high school and the four they should be in college.

I had never heard of 'young adult novels,' which I guess are about teenage gangs and the new boy in town or something.

Friends aren't any more important than breath or blood to a high school senior.

Your average teenager can't relate to a girl who casts magic spells. But she does understand someone who is torn about her upbringing and the situation in her life.

I was a loner; I spent the first half of high school alone.

I don't think 'Euphoria' can capture the entirety of the teen-in-high-school experience, but I think it is realistic. It's scary in that sense because I don't think we get to see a lot of depictions of high school this raw. I think that truth might scare people.