Josh Elliott Quotes

One of the great things I learned from how cooperative theater is, you can't be too precious about your ideas.

I'll always work with my collaborator in the room so I have a reaction on a note-by-note basis. I know in my gut when something works for me, and I'll fight for it, but I'm a very easy re-writer.

When it comes to filmmaking, we have to deal with ego, anger, and a lot more; barring all these, how the team works towards the outcome matters.

Vince or Brad or Benicio would say, Maybe we should try this, and Guy was open to changes.

Songwriting is a give-and-take process, and it can lead to some good, healthy debates.

Toby not being there doesn't bother me, I mean I can work with anybody as long as we get along and as long as they've got an understanding of what I want and what I'm aiming for. To start with, when he left, it was difficult.

One thing I learned particularly at Yale was how to work with others. Having studied so long trying to master myself, the biggest challenge was learning about the other person's work.

I come from a theatrical background, where, if you're working on a movie or a play, you always respect the people you work with. You're accommodating.

When you collaborate, you have to be willing to scrap a lot.

Writers, actors, anybody working on an ensemble-type thing, there are going to be some creaks in the beginning. It seems like there's tremendous potential in just letting things sort of breathe a little bit. It's tremendously important.

I'm a compromiser and a maneuverer. I try to get something. That's the way our system works.

A collaboration, you have to collaborate, meet in the middle, yield to the other collaborator, and that's a wonderful thing.

I tried working with the best of directors and producers. I tried being selective, but things didn't work out. Now, I am open to working with anybody and everybody who is good. Or I'll try to make it good. That suits me.

You could have one idea in your mind, and afterwards you could be working with a team with different players, and you may not be able to achieve what you want to, so you need to adapt.

I always kind of did my own thing, but it got me into trouble a lot, so I started listening to what people were telling me to do to show I was a team player.

I'm strong-willed, but that doesn't mean I can't work with people if we're all in the mission of trying to make a good movie.

From collaborating with other people, you make concessions, and those concessions are great because sometimes you are definitely wrong.

You must be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way.

Final cut is overrated. Only fools keep insisting on always having the final word. The wise swallow their pride in order to get to the best possible cut.

I just can't say enough about the actors having faith and trust in the writers and the writers having faith and trust in the actors.

If the auto plants in Detroit would just sit around the table and say, 'What do we gotta do to make this thing work?' Instead of, 'I want this and I want that.' They might make it.

I think I can work with any type of actor.

You can cooperate and not compromise your core values. But I'm a realist with the philosophy that sometimes you've got to take bites out of the apple instead of the whole apple.

It takes awhile for writers to get to know actors rhythms, not just as actors, but what they bring to the characters. I think it takes a few episodes for the writing room to catch up to the actors and vice versa.

Sometimes two artists wanna work together, but it doesn't mean it's gonna happen, because you have to find the right idea.