John Schlesinger Quotes

And I just want to work with good directors and good people.

My relationships with producers or photographers - these are relationships that took years.

Every actor I've worked with I want to work with again.

There are certainly producers I hang with and directors I hang with and actors I hang with.

The one thing about the business of entertainment is that you have to learn patience.

I was so naive I didn't even know about agents. I telephoned the William Morris agency and asked to speak to Mr. Morris. I expected Bill Morris to be waiting for my call.

One of the funny things of being a producer, you have these fleeting, intense relationships with people, and they go off to global megastardom, and you don't see them.

My brother's friend worked at a TV station, so we went in; the producer of a show asked if I wouldn't mind taking some photos for his wife, who was a talent agent. Next thing I know, I'm enroute to the agency.

It doesn't mean I'm not interested in Hollywood. I like the way it operates; I like the people who are involved and the sense of possibility. But if I ever get back in, it's not going to be as an actress.

Agents have enormous power that studios relinquished to them. The studios, when I first came to Hollywood, that's where the power was.

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 don't have an agent - I have the William Morris Agency.

I told my parents I wanted an agent, and they decided to let me have a go at it. Then I started working right away. I was 12.

CAA has a great history of representing fantastic talent, many of whom are my heroes in film and television.

Friends of mine were the creators and executive producers of 'Damages,' people I knew from graduate school.

I think it's hard for anyone to get into real estate or Hollywood.

Everyone in show business makes these sweeping, "I'll never work with so-and-so again," because that's the way you feel at the moment. It's a business where there really is no point in ever saying never. There are people I've sworn that I would never go near again, and then you see an interesting role that would put you opposite that person and you think, "Well, we'll work together, maybe they were having a bad year."

The Muppets are no joke. They are for real. Each one has an agent and manager and all that stuff. I'm not even kidding.

Probably your first agent is going to be some guy who also handles dog acts.

My agent at the time, Mike Medavoy, before he became a movie mogul, called me up and said, how about a movie with you and Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman? And I said, well, what makes you think of that? He said because I now handle you and Peter Marty.

Show business pays you a lot of money, because eventually you’re gonna get screwed.

I'll come back to New York. I think I'll start focusing in more on the entertainment business. I have been doing some of that already, all kinds of monkey business. But I'm all over the place, literally.

One of the things I've learned - before I would go on a show, I was like, "Oh God, I hate that show" or "That show is gonna get canceled." But now after being full-time on a show, you see how difficult it is and how much work goes into it and how so many decisions are based on finances or people's schedules or talent or location issues. It's a miracle that anything gets made.

TV [series] is a six-year decision. It's not four or five weeks. If a filmmaker and I don't get along, it's four weeks of your life, so whatever.

To be successful in show business, all you need are 50 good breaks.