Joss Whedon Quotes

I'll bet Shakespeare compromised himself a lot; anybody who's in the entertainment industry does to some extent.

I think there's a lot of interesting stuff on TV. I feel much more optimistic about TV than I do about movies. There will always be good movies but I think, for the most part, it's always going to be a huge fight to get those movies made. TV is the best place to be as a writer, I think.

Everyone says TV's going down the tubes, and it's all reality, but there's some really good writing and some amazing opportunities if you're lucky enough to throw your hat in the ring.

I left because I could no longer make records that sounded less and less like me. I tried to please people instead of believing in my own strength, until the only thing I could do was walk away.

I feel like some of the best talent is on TV right now, with the writing, acting and great directors. I've also been looking for the consistency of work that TV provides for you. And, I always thought it would be really interesting to live with a character for months, if not years.

I think I deliberately sold out a couple of times. I picked the songs that I thought would do well in the marketplace, even though I didn't really love the song.

For sure, without question, the writing is better on TV pound for pound than movies because the businesses have changed so much. So all the great writers would rather work for TV, and they do.

I had an attitude about some work, like television sitcoms. It was selling your soul.

Sometimes, you have to sacrifice your talent to please the public.

Television is a great job for a writer in the way that movies used to be, way before my time. Back when writers in Hollywood were on staff or under contract at any given studio and you'd write movie scripts and then the movies would get made within a few weeks, such that you could be a working writer in the movie business back in the '30s and '40s and '50s and have a hand in writing five or six movies a year that actually got produced. The only thing remotely like that in the 21st century here in Hollywood is working in the TV business.

I wanted to work on a cable show and with a writer/director because that's a much more fulfilling and freeing experience, as an actor.

I'm not a movie person. They're collaborations of the worst kind. You must compromise yourself to many interests that are venal and crass and do not have your best interests at heart.

To get a job in TV is just amazing.

In television, we are fortunate because we get to try a lot of things; we get to take a lot of shots. It gives us a great opportunity to tell many different stories from diverse points of view.

As far as television is concerned, I'm just not interested in working on a series. Why should I settle for being someone's second banana? And that weekly grind is unrewarding and too demanding.

I've been in various roles in TV - writer, producer, associate director.

The key is you don't want to control the controlled stuff too much and you don't want to be too free flowing in uncontrolled situations. That can be a contentious issue with some directors. The joy of my career is I've gotten to work with great directors who get that balance.

I don't think I should be telling you every 10 minutes what to think. I like to leave the audience alone with the magic. I tend to trust the material, or I don't do it.

In TV, you get so many different opportunities, and especially, you get to try something different you don't get to do as a normal person, then great.

Whether it's theatre or TV or film, you're hoping you're going to bump into a writer that's got a bit of honour in him, that wants to tell a good story and is able to tell it well.

Some people in the industry feel TV actors can't do anything else.

If you want to be an entertainer and just keep your audience happy, that's one thing. But to be an artist, I think, means ultimately primarily pleasing yourself, and in that respect, you constantly have this sense of confronting the expectations of your audience.

Netflix gives a lot of creative and artistic freedom to its actors and to its production team and whatnot.

I think that there's a difference between being an entertainer and being an artist.

I haven't been a director-for-hire for any project. I work with people who appreciate that, understand that, and want to work that way.