Jennifer Yuh Nelson Quotes

There are so many things that have to go right for a movie to be good that it's a miracle whenever one is.

You can scream at me, call me for a shoot at midnight, keep me waiting for hours - as long as what ends up on the screen is perfect.

You really just have to love the process. I can't tell you the amount of film sets I've been on where people are talking about Oscars in the middle of the production. It happens all the time.

Do it, do it right, pay close attention to the product, and over time, you will win.

You've got to be the best at what you can do - be the best at it! And the best has to be the best; you can't just fiddle around and hope.

I think movie making can sometimes make you lazy in your approach. Occasionally you'll be shooting a scene and it's not even your coverage but you'll catch yourself slipping away and you'll see your mind going somewhere else. But you just can't afford to do that on stage.

Art is a by-product of an honest and successful attempt to do something well.

Rate the intensive above the extensive. The perfect does not lie in quantity, but in quality.

Do a few things at mastery versus many things at mediocrity.

Before the age of adulteration it was held that behind each work there stood some conception of its perfect execution. It was this that gave zest to labor and served to measure the degree of success.

I make movies for my needs. My goal has never, never, never been to make shocking movie.

You know, that's the reality, but I always shoot movies for the screen, because that's just the experience that I want to get out of it.

When you start on a new film, no matter how many you've done before that, I think I've done close to 80 films, but it's always kind of a fun adventure.

The winners stun us not by their cleverness, but by the fact that every tiny aspect of the business is just a touch better than the norm.

Strive for perfection, but settle for excellence.

Aim not to win or succeed, but for excellence in the moment.

'Good enough' stopped being good enough a long time ago. so why not be great?

Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.

You have to have the essential pleasure of making a movie. It's such a huge factor and adventure for a director because you really are the leader and the captain.

If you're going to break cinema, film, and movies apart, very rarely to you get the opportunity to even think that you've been a part of cinema.

Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude

Strive for perfection - never be content with mediocrity. You don't win until you conquer the little flaws. You don't beat these great ones until your form is perfect. This is true in all of life. A flaw in a product can ruin a business. A personal failing, a little one, can ruin a person's life. Don't be content with mediocrity - strive to live up to the greatest within you.

If I can have the chance to be the best ever, then that would be perfect.

[Directing first film:] I was terrified, it was really very scary because there is a lot of responsibility. I think I was terrified because I wanted it to work so much. A lot of actors direct movies but I thought the stakes were kind of higher for me because I really, really cared. [...] I just worked as hard as I possibly could on every single thing, every single day. I said that if this failed it would not be because I didn't work as hard as I possibly could...every day.

I like to think that every movie emerges from the conversations.