Jason Bateman Quotes

I like directing. It takes a lot out of you, but I'd like to do it again - I just have to find a story I want to tell.

I was an actor as a kid in Boston. Then I went to art school with Brice Marden, the Massachusetts College of Art. So the hybrid of being an actor and artist is a director.

I love the entire process of being on the set and being able to create a character. It's so much fun. In 'Think Like a Man,' I have a very small part. They told me it wasn't a big budget, but I don't care about any of that. I'll do it for free simply because I love being on the set with other creative people.

Directing is the ultimate way to bring together all the art forms I've been involved with over the years.

Directing is definitely something that is in my life for keeps, and the more I do it, the more I realize how much I want to learn and how much I have to give. And it kind of bolsters my acting - it enhances it in a really wonderful way that I wasn't expecting.

What I love most is the art, is making art, acting and being on set, and being a part of the process of making a movie.

The most creative director I have worked with is Mani Ratnam.

I wanted to do a film for a while, but I never found a script that I felt I was going to be the right person for; because if you've never made a film, you're not taught how to make a film, and you feel like you lack skills.

Producing is hell, writing is frustrating, acting is really satisfying, directing is heaven.

I had a philosophy, which may have been proven right, that directing isn't as hard as everyone says it is.

Every year or so, I try to do something; it keeps me refreshed as to what's going on in front of the lens, and I understand what the actor is going through.

A script like 'Nightcrawler' gives me an opportunity to truly realize a vision that's mine, which is exciting.

I love making fiction films as well as nonfiction ones, and hope to keep challenging myself to make better and better work.

I love acting. I've been doing it since I was 16, and it's in my nature. It's the thing I do best. But as much as I love acting, I love cinema more. I always had a thing about creating images.

I have definitely been curious and involved in the process; even as a young actor. I was always looking at where the camera was, what story it was telling. And as my experience grew, I wanted to know even more.

I look at the film as an opportunity to see some bountifully creative minds do something that I could not do - tell the story with images. I can't wait to see what they do.

I look at directing as a sporting event. It's a race, a marathon. It's great when it clicks, which is why I push my crews so hard so we can excel.

I like to just work with great directors.

It's sort of one ongoing process where writing ends and directing starts.

One of my favorite things about doing movies is that you get to do different things you'd never do in real life.

I think actors do make really, really wonderful directors.

Movie directing is a perfect refuge for the mediocre.

I am not the kind of director who sits in a chair smoking a cigar talking with a microphone to 10 assistants. I need to move. To touch. To put a painting on a wall. To arrange a set.

I feel that being an actor is a front-row seat into seeing how everybody else makes their movies. Basically, being in the trenches for ten years is like a college-level course in filmmaking if not more. It feels like every director I work with and every set that I visit as an actor, I see someone else's definition of filmmaking.

Every movie presents unusual challenges, and I like solving the problems with a combination of artwork and engineering.