My first six years in the business were hopeless. There are a lot of times when you sit and you say “Why am I doing this? I’ll never make it. It’s just not going to happen. I should go out and get a real job, and try to survive.”
I’ve had much more down in my life than I’ve had up. And much more struggle. First of all, when I went into the film school everybody said, “What are you doing? This is a complete dead-end for a career.”
I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general public.
If I had time and a hammer, I’d track down every bootleg copy and smash it.
Everybody has talent; it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.
If America is the pursuit of happiness, the best way to pursue happiness is to help other people.
My success wasn’t based on how I could push down everybody that was around me. My success was based on how much I could push everybody up.
The script is what you’ve dreamed up-this is what it should be. The film is what you end up with.
But having a really good understanding of history, literature, psychology, sciences – is very, very important to actually being able to make movies.
We were always dreaming of how it was going to be.
From kindergarten to college, certain teachers engaged my curiosity and motivated me to learn. While I was not the best student, their efforts left a lasting impact.
There is no why. We are. Life is beyond reason.
If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office.
Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will...
Education is the single most important job of the human race.
Success is a very difficult thing. It’s much more difficult than one might think.
You need peers; you need people who are at the same level you are. You never know in life when you’re going to need help, and you never know who you’re going to need it from.
When my films don’t work it’s usually because I tried some very experimental idea. I tried new ideas and they just didn’t work, as opposed to trying to do something conventional and having it be so conventional nobody wanted to see it.
You really have to focus on what you’re doing and just plow ahead no matter what hurdles are thrown in front of you.
My life is making movies. I like storytelling, and I’ve got a lot of stories that are stored up in my head that I hope to get out before my time is up.