Shannon Lee Quotes

Every show I've ever, you know, produced, essentially it's the show I want to watch myself.

I've gotten to a point where I wouldn't direct someone else's material. It would only be something totally original.

As we began working toward the finale of 'Lost,' I knew there was no possible ending that was going to be universally loved, and I accepted that. We ended the story the way we wanted it to end, and we stand by it. On my Twitter feed, I still get ten to fifteen positive comments for every negative one.

I was never just a 'fill in 16 bars on a beat' rapper. I was making real songs from the jump.

I'd just like to be in films that I would like to see.

I'm doing the kind of show that I would want to see.

Hats off to Julian and Johnny, the producers, for sticking to their guns with the five-season story arc of 'Merlin'. It would have been too easy to give in to demand and stretch the show on beyond their original plan because of its incredible success.

I want to urge filmmakers in Bengal to choose a subject and mount the film in a way that there's a Bengali connect. They must not fall into the typical remake pattern.

The beauty of 'The OA' or 'Stranger Things' is that they are both made by Netflix for Netflix. And so there was a freedom all of a sudden that matched our intention.

I want to make movies that I would want to watch as a fan.

I think it's sinful to give the audience material it knows already, whether the material is about race relations or the car culture or the depiction and placement of a candy bar.

I like to make movies the way people made movies in the '70s, where they lived and died with these stories, and cared about them, and went to war for them, and they all said something they wanted to say.

Everybody wants to feel that you're writing to a certain demographic because that's good business, but I've never done that ... I tried to write stories that would interest me. I'd say, what would I like to read?... I don't think you can do your best work if you're writing for somebody else, because you never know what that somebody else really thinks or wants.

I will not allow anyone to take anything off my palette but if I do then within that, I can be creative.

I think that is what we do by preserving and telling our stories. If you don't tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. It's important that we nurture and protect these memories. Things change. Existence means change. So, the kind of precious memories about being black for my generation won't exist for my kids' and grandkids' generations unless we preserve them through fiction, through film, through comic books, and every other form of media we can possibly utilize to perpetuate the story of the great African-American people.

I think the martial arts tradition has a big influence on our generation - we all read these novels when we were very young.

The main thing Karate offers to me is a philosophy of life. The philosophy of Karate is respect and discipline. You give 100% of whatever you do, in every activity.

Art is vice. One does not wed it, one rapes it.

At Pixar, I don't have to compromise at all. When I look at the finished "Toy Story 3," I don't sit and constantly think, oh, the actor was having a bad day, or oh, it rained and we couldn't use that set. The story that I wanted to tell is what is on screen, and I haven't had to compromise it one iota.

I think you have to write what you want to watch.

Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, 'Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not?' But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision.

There's a marvelous and unique man named Frank Gilroy. He's the only writer I know who absolutely, pointedly refuses to do any changes that he doesn't feel are absolutely essential and totally in keeping with his own view and perspective. But not too many writers are that independent and that strong-willed.

The difference between directing film and directing television is so stark simply because TV is a living breathing organism already when you direct an episode.

Whatever field you can do that, that's where you want to do it, and I think that's why people like David Fincher and Ridley Scott are interested in it, too, because when you sit down on a meeting in HBO and they're like, "More, more." You're just like, "Oh yeah, I love this." Sometimes it's a little harder in film. I think also it's a great audience, take advantage of it. It's a great audience.

It is difficult to realize the true Way just through sword-fencing. Know the smallest things and the biggest things, the shallowest things and the deepest things.