Jason Reitman Quotes

The Weinsteins believe in test screenings. I don't. I don't think good films are made that way. Call me crazy, but I'd like to think you need a singular vision to make good art.

A painter's tastes must grow out of what so obsesses him in life that he never has to ask himself what it is suitable for him to do in art.

To me, directing movies is just that. It's a need to question myself and set the things that disturb me on the table.

I make films that are what they are. Some people like them, and some people don't.

I would never make a film because I think it's going to be a box-office success.

We try our best every time to make engaging films that we're interested in, and we just hope the rest of the world likes them.

With each one of my films, I'm exploring one of my own issues and I try to expose myself a little in the film.

When I show a film at a festival, I am showing myself. Everything is at stake for me.

You can't plan for people to like your movies. I knew that people were not going to run in droves to the theater for the 'In the Valley of Elah.' I knew they might not want to see it, but I still had to the movie; I felt very strongly about it. Wanting to keep telling a good story is what you want to do, a compelling story.

The most important thing for me as an artist is having an identity.

The one thing I'm proud of as a filmmaker is that people are entitled not to like my films - that's the privilege of the public - but I think I have my own imprint.

I want people to come see my films and enjoy them, but at the end of the day you can't control what people think.

I don't want to make a movie till I have an idea I have to make. I don't want to make a movie just to make a movie.

There are only so many movies you can direct. And yet there are movies that I want to make sure make it to the screen in as honest a way as possible.

What's my dilemma here? Am I making entertainment or am I making art? What am I saying? At the end of the day, cinema is entertainment for millions of people, but for me it's expression.

When you make a movie, it's just so personal and then you put it out in front of people and it becomes something else.

I am so anti-people's opinions when I'm making a record, but when it's finished and I put it out there, I hope somebody likes it.

I suppose I'm always trying to break down the wall between my characters and myself. I'm trying to make the film as expressive and personal as I can, even if I can't explain, for example, how important it is for me to be Jewish.

I mean, I think about it, but I don't design my record to get a certain public response.

As a filmmaker, you want people to understand and get what you do, and it's a lot to ask for.

I've never really thought of myself as just an actor; I always thought of myself as aspiring to be an artist, and an artist has to take risks and put himself on the line.

The gamble of literature is that I make the best work I can; the most truthful, the most representative of how I see things. I try and do that, and then I put it out there and say to you, 'What do you think?' I hope that you think well of it, obviously.

If you don't like my work in 'The Affair,' that's fine, but I'll stand by the work because I felt that everything that went on camera was what I intended to go on camera.

I'm not ashamed of any work I do. You can't decide a film's fate before its release. There's no surety that your new films will be better or worse than your previous ones. You can only hope to surpass your efforts.

A film is between you and the audience. The distributors are the only people in between us. It is a straight equation.