James Vanderbilt Quotes

Good scripts, which are apt for me, eventually come to me.

To make anything successful, you need a good writer.

Thanks to a lot of people, not just myself, 'Whale Rider' had an amazing impact emotionally, and people remember it. I count myself very lucky that all those doors were unlocked, I just had to open them.

I've written since I was 10 years old, so I guess I'm self-taught. I've had some luck along the way, I must admit, and I've worked hard.

Obviously, I've been very lucky in general in my career, but I feel that I've been very lucky in terms of having directors come along at the right times who have taken me to the next level of where I needed to be.

I never thought of myself as unlucky. When you aim high, it's tough to get there unless something really fortunate happens.

I've been real fortunate to be on a lot of great teams.

I've just been blessed to work with these really great people.

My University of Management will create managers who will float in happiness, success and fulfillment.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

I've gotten to work with some great people. I've been really lucky.

All my books were easy to write - doesn't it show?

As for goals, I don't set myself those anymore. I'm not one of these 'I must have achieved this and that by next year' kind of writers. I take things as they come and find that patience and persistence tend to win out in the end.

I've been incredibly lucky with the directors I've worked with.

I think that I have a seriousness of purpose, a lot of support, and a healthy amount of good fortune.

I've learned that positive thinking and encouragement are essential for leadership and progress.

With writing, I prefer the solo effort, but when a team is working right, as it did on 'The Grifters,' boy, it's exhilarating.

If you have a writing partner that you don't share a work ethic with, it's doomed.

I enjoy difficult tasks. What's hard is finding the people to do them and finding a team to actually enjoy success. That is the real challenge of success.

To write anything decent, it's hard. Anything you want to be good is hard.

I've been very lucky with having a run of working with very special people and it just makes you work harder.

Every team has problems. Championship teams have problems and whatnot.

You need luck, you need your key players, you need to be in the best shape, you need all of that to be champions.

I didn't know how to be a writer. But I thought, 'I can do this.'

I believe in hard work, not luck factor. The best efforts will reap the best fruits. Nobody can take all the credit. We don't even talk about the efforts of the director, the writers, other technicians, etc. They all together take a film to another level.