James L. Brooks Quotes

I tried so hard with movies like Vertigo and Middle of the Night and others. I felt those would show me that it's only a matter of time before I'd find the right one to reach out and touch people.

I'm a big fan of the Pixar movies, and Ed Catmull, who wrote a book about his experiences producing them, talks about how it takes three or four years to get it right.

When I was in college, I had only one ambition that one day I would like to be a director.

I wrote 'All is Lost' while editing 'Margin Call'. I did that long before I knew if I was ever going to get to make another movie.

Everybody is always trying to make the best movie they can. It's a process.

Every movie has its uniqueness. You just do your best and go with it.

I figure you're only here for a matter of moments. Ever since I was a kid watching movies I've always wanted to make people laugh or have some sort of emotional reaction.

As far as writing or directing a film, I've worked with enough people who have done that that I know it's just a whole other level of responsibility and chaos and murder that I could not see happening. For now, I'm just going to see what comes. I know what I like and what direction I have.

At least I want to be making films that are somehow born out of me that are stories I want to tell. The challenge is figuring out how to do it where you can make them personal, yet still deliver to an audience a film experience that is satisfying and emotional, and that's what I'm trying to do.

I would love to direct some day. It's a good job for a control freak.

I like the idea of making big budget films with a heart. I like graphic novels more than comic books.

There are no great scripts - just great films.

By the time I was 21, I knew what I wanted to do, and that was to direct films.

My heart is in independent film-making. For me, it's where the fun, gritty storytelling is being told.

My purpose is to make films that will help people to live, even if they sometimes cause unhappiness.

The cinema is there to heighten the imagination; I have always tried to make sure it does so.

When I saw 'Talk to Her' for the first time, I was crying out loud because I couldn't imagine that I was doing that film.

The thing about this business is that you always end up finding these amazing stories and these amazing people who make amazing films. I just want to work with good people and keep challenging myself with different kinds of characters.

I want to produce and direct and write one day.

My films, I've tried to put a message into them. It's not about the gore; it's not about the horror element that are in them. It's more about the message, for me. That's what it is, and I'm using this platform to be able to show my feelings of what I think.

I really love making movies. I just have this yearning in my stomach to go back and somehow subversively screw up television a little bit again.

My goal would be to make Frank Capra-type films about real people, how they define their reality.

Most of my films have been very character driven.

I want to create films that will speak to different parts of our hearts and brains, stories told from a different angle.

I still go see films for entertainment, and I love them, but for me as a filmmaker, I really want to have a purpose in telling a story.