James L. Brooks quotes

There was a great director who directed a picture that I wrote who barred me from the set- quite appropriately- and said, "I'm sorry, Jim. When you're directing, you don't need to know everything. You need the illusion that you do.” And, you know, and I WOULD be there- behind him trying to signal the actors in, you know, in a way I wasn't even aware of. (James L. Brooks)
I took some time out for life.
James L. Brooks
I had a marketing idea that everybody hated, decency is sexy.
James L. Brooks
I've done it with Broadcast News-where there was no finish line, there was no agenda that I had to move all the characters to this point, that I was sort of open to what happens.
James L. Brooks
I had a screenplay once where I was 90 pages in and I knew it was all over. I knew it was a disaster. And it was driving me crazy because the studio had gone down a path with me, so there was no getting out and I didn't know how to go past these 90 pages. And then it all worked out-and the change which made it from absolute despair that there was no way to save it to it all working out was minute. But, but key. INTERVIEWER: Which screenplay was that? JAMES L. BROOKS: Uh, it was Terms of Endearment.
James L. Brooks
I think you have a pact with an audience in every picture, and I think the pact is to try and be truthful and to be real.
James L. Brooks
You become so obsessed, and that's not a bad thing for a movie. Serve it with that sense that it's the whole world.
James L. Brooks
Things get very distorted when you do a movie, weirdly so.
James L. Brooks
I value comedy. I value somebody who can be funny.
James L. Brooks
Media reporting denied privacy to anybody doing what I do for a living. It was no longer possible to work on your picture in privacy.
James L. Brooks
What does it mean for an actor to make a part his own? It means that he takes on what you had intended and starts to put in his own stuff so that it becomes something that could only happen if he played it. (James L. Brooks)
I have a lot of nightmares.
James L. Brooks
Kids in general make things fresh and alive and they have this great appreciation for, Holy mackerel, we're making a movie!
James L. Brooks
When you work alongside somebody day in and day out, the relationships tend to be wonderful: they're lifelong.
James L. Brooks
I love romantic comedy, but I think you have to have another idea that you're chasing along with romantic comedy.
James L. Brooks
Great things that can happen when you're doing a movie.
James L. Brooks
A lot of things just aren't true any more.
James L. Brooks
If you ever catch a great boss, it's just such a rare thing, and it's amazing.
James L. Brooks