Miguel Ferrer Quotes

And I maintain good relationships with all the studios so I've never been bullied into any cut, frankly.

When it comes to filmmaking, we have to deal with ego, anger, and a lot more; barring all these, how the team works towards the outcome matters.

Solutions must be based on compromises.

You learn how to compromise and you learn how to read each other. Honestly, being in a band with two guys has prepared me so much for when it's time for me to get married!

So I told Robert from the start that if we couldn't get Charles and Max to take part, but especially Charles, that I didn't want to make the film. So would he call his mother and talk to Charles and see if Charles would at all be interested.

It's learning how to negotiate to keep both sides happy - whether it's for a multi-million dollar contract or just which show to watch on TV, that determines the quality and enjoyment of our lives.

Writing is a solitary existence. Making a movie is controlled chaos - thousands of moving parts and people. Every decision is a compromise. If you're writing and you don't like how your character looks or talks, you just fix it. But in a movie, if there's something you don't like, that's tough.

The great thing about movies is that they're collaborative. And the worst thing is that they're collaborative.

Boards and myself get along somehow.

Compromise, compromise and compromise.

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.

I'm willing to sit down with anybody and have constructive criticism.

When you have 435 people who are opinionated... sometimes agreeing on things is difficult.

Negotiation is often described as the art of letting the other side have your way. You have to give the other side a chance to put stuff on the table voluntarily.

I do a film only when I feel I will be comfortable with the set-up and other members of the team.

I didn't come in as a writer that found producers, I came in under producers. So I've always respected the actual production process and producers in general.

There is an appealing moral clarity in dividing the world into friend and foe. But in reality, progress in international affairs so often demands working with those with whom we do not see eye to eye.

If we can’t agree on the facts, how can we agree on the solutions?

A huge amount of negotiations and diplomacy has nothing to do with bartering or arguing but is just trying to get everyone [doing the negotiating] on the same page. It takes yours, days, even weeks sometimes.

Part of the job of being a producer is the Vulcan mind meld, where you listen not to what they're saying but what they mean.

I think the movie business, you meet people, and you work intensely with them, and you have these relationships - there's an intimacy to it and a familiarity to the relationship because you're having to let go of all your barriers so you can let people in and work with them.

I mean, I'm a big believer in talking to people when you can and trying to solve problems when you can.

A big part of the job of being a showrunner is, in my way of thinking, being a good communicator because there's really no other way to have hope for getting what you want, at the end of the day.

There is always competition for influence, but there are also opportunities for cooperation.

By nature, I am a unifier. I am a builder of consensus. I don't believe in sloppy compromise. But I do believe in bringing people together.