Gary Ross Quotes

Writing and directing your own film, for me, has been the best experience of my life.

We've been working with the very best in the business. The studio really just let us alone to make the films.

My big goal in life was always to figure out how I can make a lot of money so I can go off and make films irrespective of the opinion of the three or four critics who seem to rule the roost.

I was pretty happy with how my career had gone, mainly because of the enormous freedom I've had to write what I've wanted to write. I had a very clear picture of who I was as a writer.

No, United Artists was a very extraordinary organization, because once they had agreed on the director, they believed in letting him have his way. They trusted me, and that doesn't often happen.

I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.

I was afraid the other musicians might want to present themselves too much, though I see in the coverage I've received of the album that the musicians got wonderful reviews for their contributions and abilities. I think the four musicians played freely within my limits.

I think to have done 'Titanic' would have been a tortuous experience altogether. I feel good about where my life is, now. I feel free and joyous and happy and more liberated than I have ever been.

Directing is really exciting. In the end, it's more fun to be the painter than the paint.

I've rarely gotten a good review in my life, yet, to paraphrase Noel Coward, I am happy to console myself with the bitter palliative of commercial success.

I don't want to feel what I'm creating on film has an outcome that is preordained. I don't think of the world as a place with a divinity that shapes our end. What you try to do with film is create, as far as you possibly can, an unfolding present - a theatre in which an outcome happens and is tested.

If I wanted to have total control and be a dictator, I would do ice sculpture in my basement. If I want to make a movie, I'm going to work with 500 people, and I will have to work with their strength and their weakness.

The one thing I want to do - and I am doing - is starting my own production company, for me to produce and direct in the future. Have a bit more say and control - become the storyteller more than just the character. I want to choose the story, plant the seed, and watch it grow. I just want to have a bit more involvement.

If you can get your movie made the way you want to get it made, no matter what the end result is going to be, if people are going to see it, that's awesome.

If I wanted an open space, I could do a documentary about fishes. Then I would have an open space to play my music. That's not how I visualize the work I'm doing.

You do sequels because they are tent poles. They open well, and they hold the tent up. But in between, you make a movie you respect.

You know you have made it as an artist when you have the power to say no.

I've had the great luxury in my career to be so successful as a songwriter that I didn't have the desperate need to have material to tour behind. It took a lot of pressure off me.

When I did 'Don't Look Back,' I no longer had Time-Life looking over my shoulder, so I could kind of do it as I wanted, and it was like I was really correcting 'Jane.'

One never can plan. I just did my work and enjoyed shooting for all my films.

I have my own ideas when it comes to making cinema. My films should be of my liking and suit my convictions.

Making an independent film is so different.

When you're the lead, as I was in 'Offender,' you don't have to be perfect all the time; you've got time to get it right.

Boygenius' was the first time I produced without a producer-producer in the room. It's been crazy.

Anybody that makes films knows the film is never finished. It's abandoned or it's ripped out of your hands, and it's thrown into the marketplace, never finished. It's a very rare experience where you find a filmmaker who says, "That's exactly what I wanted. I got everything I needed. I made it just perfect. I'm going to put it out there."