Aaron McGruder Quotes

My sense of Los Angeles was very New York provincial, as in 'all those people are crazy out there' (which they are), and stupid (which they're not), and immoral (it's more interesting than that).

I had a really negative look at the night-life side of Hollywood, which I really didn't like. I went to New York to focus on modeling, and then of course found that New York was not any different from Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is just New York lying down.

I grew up partially in L.A. and partially in New York. In L.A., anything goes because it's really temperate. There aren't any fashion rules dictated by weather, whereas in New York, of course, there are. New York is seasonal, and also it's a fashion mecca, so people are a little more aware of how they put things together.

Being from New York, there's three things you know about Hollywood. You know about the Hollywood sign, Sunset Strip and Hollywood Boulevard with the stars.

Just as London is not one endless afternoon tea, L.A. isn't all super-fit, health food-crazy freaks.

Because I direct films, I have to live in a major English-speaking production center. That narrows it down to three places: Los Angeles, New York and London. I like New York, but it's inferior to London as a production center. Hollywood is best, but I don't like living there.

I've always lived in New York; I never moved to L.A. I was developing and producing and writing a pilot for a year. That took me out of everything for over a year. When that sadly didn't go forward, I shot 'Black Mirror' right after that.

I've never really felt at home in L.A. I've only been here to work, and then I immediately go back to New York.

L.A. is the opposite of Britain in a lot of respects, and that's what draws so many British people here.

There are a lot of interesting differences between Boston and New York in general, and I think they're sort of heightened in Long Island.

L.A. has always been hated on so much. I remember, the first time I went to New York, I was at jam sessions, and people would hear me and come up to me and be like, 'Oh wow, you're from L.A.? Really?'

I take my inspiration from New York, and I bring it to L.A. and use it as a quiet place to do my work.

What I didn't realize is, getting out to L.A., you realize how normal it is, especially if you go eat or have dinner in West Hollywood: kind of everybody is somebody out there.

Going to school in San Francisco, you're not going to meet as many people that are making films as you would if you went to film school in New York or L.A.

I moved to L.A. because I didn't want to be in New York anymore. And I knew if I wanted to act, it would have to be in one of those places.

I did a lot of TV work for more than 30 years in New York and L.A., but I would get on the stage whenever I could.

I would describe Los Angeles as actually not having taste. In New York, there's taste. But you have to remember that taste is censorship. It's a form of restriction.

Film directors don't come to the theatre in Sydney. In London and New York, they do.

L.A. is such a different place. I miss New York so much. I almost teared up when I came back and wanted a Guinness and realized I could drink it and take a cab home. I remembered that I could be a functional alcoholic in New York, like I used to be!

The music industry seems scary to me. I mean the film industry is crazy enough so the music industry to me seems like the wild, wild West. Like I would just never dare.

Nobody ever said, "Well if you want to be in movies, you should go to L.A." Everybody else was going to New York. So I went to New York with them. And then I was like, "How am I supposed to get a movie?"

Hollywood is a great place if you're an orange.

I knew I wanted to be an actor, and I didn't necessarily need or want to be famous or a celebrity actor. But I wanted to be somewhere where there would be no ceiling on what I could accomplish, and I felt like if I stayed in St. Louis I might have a really great regional theater career or something, but that I wasn't going to be able to get much further than that. And it felt like New York and L.A. were the two places where you could end up being a TV star or you could end up doing regional theater, which would have been fine as well.

We're making tin gods out of those poor buffoons in Hollywood; I dote on movies and appreciate the scanty art therein but I consider the profession about the most debased and debasing I know.