Top 100 J.J. Abrams Quotes
#1. We're always pitching ideas and being told "no thank you." No offense taken, because I would so much rather be told the truth that they're not interested and be able to find the right show for that network down the line.
J.J. Abrams
#2. The goal is always to do B material in an A fashion.
J.J. Abrams
#3. Pitching is always a weird, difficult thing.
J.J. Abrams
#4. Well, when Kathy Kennedy, who is the president of Lucasfilm, came to me to ask if I'd be interested in working on this "Star Wars" movie, we talked about a young woman at the center of the story from the outset. And it was something that was always an important part of this movie.
J.J. Abrams
#5. The Internet now provides an immediate and very clear consensus of what it is that the audience is experiencing. It's something that you should never let lead you, and yet at the same time, you should never ignore it.
J.J. Abrams
#6. I was more of a Star Wars kid, actually. I always thought Star Trek was a lot of talk, and it felt a little self-important. It was hard for me to get into it.
J.J. Abrams
#7. I sort of love the idea of, you know, watching something and then having to wait for the next episode.
J.J. Abrams
#8. I'm not trying to be coy or manipulative or Machiavellian, I want to spark people's imaginations.
J.J. Abrams
#9. To be a self rewritten from a lost first draft.
J.J. Abrams
#10. Well, we're all victims of our own gene pool. Unfortunately, someone must have peed in yours. - Walter Bishop, "Fringe" (TV)
J.J. Abrams
#11. We used to have more references to things that we pulled out because they almost felt like they were trying too hard to allude to something.
J.J. Abrams
#12. On movies like Star Trek and Star Wars, you have so much that will be created or extended digitally, and it's a slippery slope where you can get lost in a world of synthetic.
J.J. Abrams
#13. With three kids you are just trying to survive. You can't be fastidious.
J.J. Abrams
#14. I'd love to do a movie where the monster is human, where the issue is not otherworldly, or horror or science fiction.
J.J. Abrams
#15. When you work on something that combines both the spectacular and the relatable, the hyperreal and the real, it suddenly can become supernatural. The hypothetical and the theoretical can become literal.
J.J. Abrams
#16. I think admitting youre an addict is the first step towards recovery.
J.J. Abrams
#17. When I was a kid going into the movies, you weren't force-fed information everywhere you looked about what the movie was going to be.
J.J. Abrams
#18. I hope to make movies that are so small they don't need to make anything to be profitable.
J.J. Abrams
#19. We live in an age of instant knowledge. And there's almost a sense of entitlement to that.
J.J. Abrams
#20. I remember being taught to read at a very early age. Like creepy young. I remember being in the crib, reading. My parents were very impressed. My reading speed, comprehension and overall ability has remained at that level ever since.
J.J. Abrams
#21. As a director/writer/producer, all you ever want is to work with actors who make you look better, who make the work you do seem as good as it can be and even better than it is.
J.J. Abrams
#22. I try to work on shows that I would want to watch.
J.J. Abrams
#23. The thing is: you might be right to trust someone at one point, but they can change."
"+ in between they must be drifting from trustworthy to not. But you can't tell how far they've drifted until it's too late.
J.J. Abrams
#24. It's not often that I read about actors that I'm going to be meeting. I get to read articles about actors who were going to come in, so I get to see someone and say, "Oh, I read that I was going to see you. It's very nice to see you."
J.J. Abrams
#25. Whenever you're playing sports with people who are better than you are, it makes you rise to the occasion.
J.J. Abrams
#26. I mean, my dad's a television producer, and I knew I could get a job as an assistant or a reader with one of his friends, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do.
J.J. Abrams
#27. There are always a bunch of ideas floating around and I do the best that I can to try to not do them. The ideas don't go away and, over time, are finally like, "Okay, it's been around so long, I have to get this thing out," and it somehow ends up coming to some version of fruition.
J.J. Abrams
#28. I do feel like no matter what you're doing, whether it's music or writing a play or a poem or drawing a picture or painting something, that you're speaking to what is it you want to express, what is it you want to see.
J.J. Abrams
#29. I hate to look at the stuff I've written and consider what it means or why I do it.
J.J. Abrams
#30. I guess the idea of not wanting to choose to direct a film, for which I've not read a script. It's a tough decision to make without seeing any pages. That's not to say that I don't have all the faith in the world in the spectacular writers.
J.J. Abrams
#31. I've had the same friends since I was in kindergarten.
J.J. Abrams
#32. Approaching any movie with a three in the title you know you are not going to get a political polemic. You are not going to get some sort of political statement or ultra-deep message.
J.J. Abrams
#33. The idea to put episodes out weekly in theory makes as much sense as putting them all out at once.
J.J. Abrams
#34. I feel blessed that I get to be part of entertaining people in any capacity.
J.J. Abrams
#36. I believe in anything that will engage the audience and make the story more effective.
J.J. Abrams
#37. There's nothing wrong with doing sequels, they're just easier to sell.
J.J. Abrams
#38. I was never really a comic-book fanatic.
J.J. Abrams
#39. Making movies was more a reaction to not being chosen for sports. Other kids were out there playing at whatever; I was off making something blow up and filming it, or making a mould of my sister's head using alginating plaster.
J.J. Abrams
#40. You know, we've got to this place, where you go to a movie for one particular surgical fix. So, it's like, I want the pulse-pounding action, or the insane falling-off-my-seat comedy, or the devastating, heart-breaking drama.
J.J. Abrams
#41. All I know is that I've made some big screw-ups, and I've done some things that have done all right. I just keep trying to learn from the mistakes I've made.
J.J. Abrams
#42. People never know what they want, though everyone says they do. If they did, nobody would ever be surprised.
J.J. Abrams
#43. Well, we knew that we wanted to tell a story that made bold choices, and one of those bold choices was meeting a storm trooper and seeing who this person was. That's something that had never been done.
J.J. Abrams
#44. I love working with the right actor, and if the right actor happens to be unknown, that should be allowed, too, I think.
J.J. Abrams
#45. When I was a kid, it was a huge insult to be a geek. Now it's a point of pride in a weird way.
J.J. Abrams
#46. I think that even if you're wondering if two characters are ever going to kiss, drawing out the inevitability is part of the fun. Whatever the genre happens to be.
J.J. Abrams
#47. Mystery is more important than knowledge.
J.J. Abrams
#48. Every hour that you spend doing something, even if you love it more than anything, you're not with your family. Every project that you take on, that's another choice.
J.J. Abrams
#49. I think that the success of the film is as much about it being something that families could share as anything else.
J.J. Abrams
#50. I'd like to use IMAX. The problem with IMAX is that it's a very loud camera. It's a very unreliable camera. Only so much film can be in the camera. You can't really do intimate scenes with it.
J.J. Abrams
#51. I don't want to do something that is so inside that only die-hard fans will appreciate.
J.J. Abrams
#52. Stories in which the destruction of society occurs are explorations of social fears and issues that filmmakers, novelists, playwrights, painters have been examining for a long time.
J.J. Abrams
#53. I'm working on the Star Wars script today and the people in my office have covered up all my windows with black paper. I guess they wanted to make sure no one could see what I was doing. It seems rather extreme.
J.J. Abrams
#54. I work with really hard-working people who are really good at what they do.
J.J. Abrams
#55. The magic that works, to me, is the magic that feels completely grounded and real and tangible.
J.J. Abrams
#56. I have nothing against 3-D in theory. But I've also never run to the movies because something's in 3-D.
J.J. Abrams
#57. 'Star Trek' was always a little bit closed emotionally. I never connected to the characters.
J.J. Abrams
#58. What's a bigger mystery box than a movie theater? You go to the theater, you're just so excited to see anything - the moment the lights go down is often the best part.
J.J. Abrams
#60. I find that it's hard to fully examine one's life and not have faith be part of the discussion.
J.J. Abrams
#61. It's cool to be a nerd. There's a general understanding that smartphones didn't come from jocks. The digital age was foreseen by a group of short-sleeved, buttoned-down, white-shirted guys and their female equivalents designing the very stuff that's now ubiquitous.
J.J. Abrams
#62. The ability of a television series to make adjustments is something you've got to take advantage of.
J.J. Abrams
#63. I have no style. There are certain people who just have a visual sense that defines their work. You could probably watch 30 seconds of anything they do and you'll know exactly who directed it. I don't have that skill.
J.J. Abrams
#64. I've always liked working on stories that combine people who are relatable with something insane.
J.J. Abrams
#65. I'm an impatient guy and tend not to like to stay with one thing for a long time. I'll never be able to write as many scripts as I did for "Felicity" or "Alias" ever again. I'm just too impatient these days. I want to get on to the next project.
J.J. Abrams
#66. He walks among us, but is not with us.
J.J. Abrams
#67. I've just been lucky to work on things that I felt would be cool to see. It's not that I had a strategy or anything.
J.J. Abrams
#68. When there's an authentic mystery, as opposed to just a question being asked, that's what makes you lean forward.
J.J. Abrams
#69. My mother is the coolest, most amazing person I know.
J.J. Abrams
#70. It's a leap of faith doing any serialised storytelling.
J.J. Abrams
#71. Don't sell your story, just tell your story.
J.J. Abrams
#72. I love movies with spectacle but spectacle can be a performance, it doesn't have to be a creature.
J.J. Abrams
#73. Whenever a toddler sees a pile of blocks, he wants to tear it down.
J.J. Abrams
#74. I think you have a passion and an obsession for something when it's not necessarily ubiquitous.
J.J. Abrams
#75. This is where his life - his remade life - has brought him. Each strange juncture has led to the next and now he is here. He is here, and it is nowhere.
J.J. Abrams
#76. Robotics are beginning to cross that line from absolutely primitive motion to motion that resembles animal or human behavior.
J.J. Abrams
#77. I feel like obviously the standard for what TV looks like changes all the time.
J.J. Abrams
#78. I try to push ideas away, and the ones that will not leave me alone are the ones that ultimately end up happening.
J.J. Abrams
#79. I think when you're 10 years old, it's too much to see something with the threat of death in every episode. Kids are better left naive about certain things.
J.J. Abrams
#80. I am lucky, I'm the first to admit that.
J.J. Abrams
#81. I'm not as optimistic as Gene Roddenberry was. I fall somewhere in the middle. But as a romantic, I like to think things are going to get bigger rather than worse.
J.J. Abrams
#82. When I was a kid, among the other embarrassing things I would do, and there's a list of stupid things, but I would make these dumb comedy tapes. I would often make prank phone calls, but I would also do it with friends.
J.J. Abrams
#83. Whenever I've directed something, there's this feeling of demand and focus that I like.
J.J. Abrams
#84. As a kid, 'Star Wars' was much more my thing than 'Star Trek' was.
J.J. Abrams
#85. I don't think it was hate,' Castus replied thoughtfully. 'I think it was fear.
J.J. Abrams
#86. All the times I've been lucky enough to be a part of a show that's actually gotten on the air, it's always that same mixture of excitement and utter fear.
J.J. Abrams
#87. Maybe there are times when mystery is more important than knowledge. I realized that the white page is a magic box. Ultimately, the mistery box is all of us. Ubiquitous technologies. What comes next ? Mystery as catalyst for imagination.
J.J. Abrams
#88. You never want to have that ticking clock and know that you had all this time and didn't use it.
J.J. Abrams
#89. I don't think anyone wants a movie on time that's not worth your time.
J.J. Abrams
#90. I'm literally open to any medium that will have me.
J.J. Abrams
#91. It's what happens. You love, then you lose, then you die. Even if you survive, you die.
J.J. Abrams
#92. I'm obsessed with things that are distinctly analogue.
J.J. Abrams
#93. Directing a movie precludes me from being involved in any greater way. But, the job was never to do more, it was always to enable. Sometimes as a producer, you're creating and writing it, or sometimes you're writing and directing it, or other times you're there from the very beginning.
J.J. Abrams
#94. One of my favorite things about 'Star Trek' wasn't just the overt banter but the humor in that show about the relationships between the main characters and their reactions to the situations they would face; there was a lot of comedy in that show without ever breaking its reality.
J.J. Abrams
#95. I do think there's something about the digital age that is increasingly dehumanising us. We're in this very weird place where we're being pulled into experiences that aren't really experiences at all.
J.J. Abrams
#96. When I was a little kid - and even still - I loved magic tricks. When I saw how movies got made - at least had a glimpse when I went on the Universal Studios tour with my grandfather, I remember feeling like this was another means by which I could do magic.
J.J. Abrams
#97. To me the interesting main character is never the one without flaws.
J.J. Abrams
#98. I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid.
J.J. Abrams
#99. I feel like in telling stories, there are the things the audience thinks are important, and then there are the things that are actually important.
J.J. Abrams
#100. You beat death, Arvin. But you couldn't beat me.
J.J. Abrams
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