James L. Brooks Quotes

I think after 'The Day The Earth Stood Still,' I really stopped thinking strategically about my career. I just did. At that point, it became crystal clear to me that you can strategise your career all you want, but it's so difficult to get a movie made, and creativity shouldn't be subjected to that kind of strategic thinking.

The films I'm planning and doing are a mix of different things, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to stop doing comedy. That's something I love doing and I can't take that for granted.

What I had heard about TV is that it's very rigid - that you have to hit your mark, look a certain way, do certain things, that there is no freedom artistically - and that's my worst nightmare. I don't work well in rigid environments.

The studio is a time when you can do anything that you want to. You have that freedom.

Sometimes with Polaroids, the shot you want to get in your head doesn't happen. What it makes me do is be patient, I guess, or let go of that presumption of what the shot's going to be.

If I've got a script, you think I'll go to Hollywood to get money? I was bored with the people around me, so I just created my own movie, my own character. I'm the story of my own movie, and you know what? My movie is going to be better.

Going forward, I have four different ways of approaching what I want to do - I can generate my own material by writing. I can produce, direct, act, or do a combination of these things, mixing it up.

I could only do music if I could do it the way I could do it. That's what be making me stop, I don't wanna do music in the box.

I write my own lyrics; I can incorporate my own ideas. And yes, apparently, people think it's cool. That's pretty awesome.

I've done my own videos, I do my own styling, so I feel like I've just always been a visual artist... I was one of those kids who wanted to make my own clothes and take pictures of everything. Everything inspired me, and everything felt like art around me.

I have only so many songs to choose from when I'm deciding on the album. So I learned that I'm a little slow as far as dishing out music, but I learned to be patient with myself and not rush anything.

From a creative perspective, we've been very fortunate in that doing it the 'VGHS' way gave us unlimited freedom. Whatever we wanted to do, however we wanted to do it, we had that.

Sometimes, I am lucky because all factors are combined - composition, light, emotion - and sometimes not. Most of the time, I must be patient and wait.

I can be a little messy and wild and carefree with my creativity as a solo artist. In a group, there's a certain structure, and everyone has a part to play, and being a solo artist, I can do as I please.

That's the nice thing about songwriting: You don't have to punch a clock or be in a specific place to do it. There's really a lot of freedom to it.

When I have a new idea, I'm charged up and want to start the film immediately, but I simply don't have the patience to wait for stars.

I want to act in films and use all my financial resources to fund independent music.

I prefer to work at my own pace.

I'm definitely going to continue to make films in Scotland, but that doesn't mean it will be exclusively there, and I don't have any particular need to wave a flag.

When I was a kid, I wanted to make movies. In particular, I loved animation and would love to have been an animator.

I don't bother about trivial issues. I am the master of my time. I decide how I spend my time. I act in a few films, produce a few of them, and direct a few films.

I don't want to be picky and say that I only want to do films.

My lens and my personality, it's just fluid. The art isn't just in one place.

I definitely want to do other things outside of acting like producing, directing.

I don't think one should be a slave to one medium.