Jason Reitman Quotes

I still have my talent to produce and direct.

I think I'm drawn to films more as a director with a directorial mind even as an actor. I make movies to make the films, not to act.

I'm in awe of directors like the Coen brothers who can shoot their script and edit it, and that's the movie. They're not discovering the movie in postproduction. They're editing the script they shot.

I knew that I'd end up directing because I'm so hands-on with my films.

Making a movie and not directing the little moments is like drinking a soda and leaving the little slurp puddle for someone else.

I made the intentional choice to step behind the camera.

You ought to have a perspective when you're making a film.

Being behind the camera is where I feel comfortable. I've found something that I feel I, as 'Michael,' can be as confident in as 'Johnny' was on the stage. It's great being part of the creative process. You're right at the start of an idea, and you get to see it all the way through till the end.

When you create a movie, you create something in your image.

I don't know how to make movies without getting my hands dirty.

We filmmakers are control freaks. For us, it's about bending the elements of a story into existence.

I think making a film is as much knowing what you don't like as what you do like, and avoiding the things that you don't like like the plague and making sure that they never appear onscreen in any shape or form.

I still direct my own videos.

Directing's the best part. Whenever I've directed something, there's this feeling of demand and focus that I like. And secondly, it means that you've gotten through all the writing stuff, and the producing stuff, and casting, and prep, and all those stages that are seemingly endless. So directing is sort of the reward for all the work you put in before. And then there's the editing, which is another amazing stage of the process. It's incredible the moments you can create.

I really enjoy being behind the camera. A ton of projects I've done that are my most favorite projects would be where I actually executive produce and I'm behind the camera.

As a director, I'm not the one animating every frame, every shot. I'm moving around like a surgeon on rounds, or a farmer checking in on all the plants being grown, pruning and adjusting. For me, it's a very exciting job.

In a daydream sort of way, I think it would be pretty cool to direct a movie. But I have been on movie and TV sets and know it is hard work. I like directing it in my mind. It is easier.

Absolutely. I can produce. I can write. I can direct.

For me, I see filmmaking as art.

There are some scenes that work beautifully in a moving, sweeping master, which is how I like to work.

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world. A picture is made. You put a frame around it and move on. And one day you die. That is all there is to it.

I still have energy and some degree of youth, which is what a filmmaker needs.

When I write a screenplay, and when I direct, I always pull lines out.

As far as I'm concerned, I make movies.

I was, and am, a frustrated filmmaker and film student, and my passion and love for movies was so broad that, in the earlier part of my career, I stumbled into doing 'Sports Night' and was a comedy director.