Jeff Nichols Quotes

I feel every day that everything I create - everything I do - I want it to be a risk.

You have to be slightly uncomfortable with what you're doing, and you have to be able to try to find moments of newness.

I remember on my very first film, which Steven Soderberg executive-produced, he said, 'Try not to repeat yourself. Do things that scare you.' Even if it's a challenge, I want people to say that this guy tried this thing. Hopefully he learned from it.

My direction as a person working in film has been to never get comfortable with anything I was doing. At the time that I decided to do action films, people were telling me, "Well, you can't do it. You're not that type. It's not going to work." And so obviously that made me think, "Well, that's not comfortable. Maybe I should try it. What can I do with it?" So I did that, and I'm glad I did it. I'll probably do it again, and I did other kinds of things that seemed like challenges for me, because I like being on the high wire.

It's only when you risk failure that you discover things. When you play it safe, you're not expressing the utmost of your human experience.

It's fun to be on the edge. I think you do your best work when you take chances, when you're not safe, when you're not in the middle of the road, at least for me, anyway.

When I look back at this career I've had, I don't know where it goes from here, but certainly any time I can make a movie that's different, that explores something that's not a retread of something else, I'm interested in it.

I'm attracted to seeing how different I can be, pushing the boat out.

It's all about risk-taking when you're making an album. Don't be scared to do weird things sometimes.

I don't believe in pitfalls. I believe in taking risks and not doing the same thing twice.

The thing I'm most proud of about - not all of our movies, but a lot of our movies - is that you might love 'em, you might hate 'em, but most of the time, they're trying to be different or trying new things, which I think is really important.

If you don't take a risk then what's the point. We can't keep making films in the same space.

There can't be art without risk. It's like saying No Sex, and then expecting there to be children.

If you haven't failed yet, you haven't tried anything.

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don't take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn't been seen before?

Cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby.

The fun part for me is to just really push that envelope.

My job is to have new ideas and take risks every day, so I'm always looking forward to the next thing being done or making the next thing that I haven't yet gotten to. That's sort of the constant in my life.

We wanted to offer something new to our audience. I hate it when bands stop taking chances.

I'm a person who is always trying to write in a different vein.

I love to play things that are out-of-the-box. It's just that I don't always get the chance to do it!

Risk is essential. There is not growth of inspiration in staying within what is safe and comfortable. Once you find out what you do best, why not try something else?

As an actor, I'm always up for exploring and trying new things.

It was actually the enormous risks I took with my pictures, skating right up to the edge of non-acceptance, that paid off so handsomely.

I always wanted to be that guy who pushed the envelope in all kind of ways and tried something new. When I keep that rule going, it always takes me to a new place. There are times when I fail miserably, but I always find myself knowing one more thing better, doing one more thing that I never did before.