Lynda Obst Quotes

#1. Nerve, not talent, is the one necessary and sufficient trait for success. (Wouldn't it be ideal if it were talent? But talent with no nerve is like the sound of one hand clapping.

Lynda Obst

#2. When I was starting out, the first women studio heads and writers were just getting into their perches - development execs learning their chops.

Lynda Obst

#3. Love and friendship, two of life's abiding rewards, are endangered species in Hollywood. People crave both, mistaking alliance for friendship, lust for love, and ambition for both.

Lynda Obst

#4. I think there are always actor parts, and then there are movie-star parts, and an actor's always an actor until he does a movie-star part.

Lynda Obst

#5. Breakthroughs, in art, in culture, in personality, come when tackling the unexpected.

Lynda Obst

#6. Ego problems are endemic in every walk of life, but in the movie business egomaniacs are megalomaniacs.

Lynda Obst

#7. With all these tentpoles, franchises, reboots and sequels, is there still room for movies in the movie business?

Lynda Obst

#8. Like the tectonic plate it sits upon, Hollywood is subject to seismic jolts and constant tremors. Each season erupts with a new champion, and every so often a genuine earthquake will tear down the apparently secure infrastructure.

Lynda Obst

#9. My goal has been to learn how to get movies made without losing sight of the reasons I began. I have had to learn to recognize the insidious nature of the beast without becoming one.

Lynda Obst

#10. There is a fine line between perseverance and madness.

Lynda Obst

#11. The key to moving a maybe to a yes is to make the buyer feel as though other buyers have already said yes ... It helps if it's true, but it never is. No one wants to be the first yes. Why is this? I don't know, but I think it's anthropological.

Lynda Obst

#12. The only way I can access all my strength is to relax ... The paradox is that you must learn to be relaxed while using all your power.

Lynda Obst

#13. It is just as important to move on in the wake of stunning success as in the wake of disaster.

Lynda Obst

#14. What turns a work crisis into a life crisis is the infusion of dread.

Lynda Obst

#15. Recognizing that the movie business was the entertainment business that wasn't moving fast enough to fill my creative and financial coffers was an impetus to grow, and that has taken me and so many of my colleagues into a larger world.

Lynda Obst

#16. My sense of Los Angeles was very New York provincial, as in 'all those people are crazy out there' (which they are), and stupid (which they're not), and immoral (it's more interesting than that).

Lynda Obst

#17. In most fields of endeavor there are no easy jobs; there are only graceful ways of performing difficult ones.

Lynda Obst

#18. Information is currency ... Power is a place as well as a verb; it is inside the information tent.

Lynda Obst

#19. Like the color black, business mixed with anything turns to business.

Lynda Obst

#20. The lack of women directors is a sad fact of life. Kathryn Bigelow's thrilling Best Director win may help turn things around.

Lynda Obst

#21. Every single one of us who has been a 'Woman in Film' for more than five minutes is sick of the phrase 'Women in Film.'

Lynda Obst

#22. Directing is the last frontier for women in the movie business. We are studio heads, we are producers and we are writers, but we are not directors in any numbers.

Lynda Obst

#23. Always remember the famous adage about the movie business: You can't make a living, you can only get rich.

Lynda Obst

#24. Everything can be undone, including success.

Lynda Obst