Brian Grazer Quotes

I never said I wanted to be a lead actress; I never said I wanted to be a film actress. This need to trump everyone bewilders me. I'm only 25. I'm not better than anyone. I just want to watch other people and learn to be good.

I'm so lucky to have the opportunity to work with some directors and some actors I wouldn't have dared to think I would work with one day.

I love how people in this business push themselves to know themselves, the world, and their creativity better.

There's no blueprint for where I should be. I see myself as a young, good actor who still has a lot to learn. There's nobody at any point in their career who is the finished article.

I don't plan in terms of career ambitions. The only career ambition I have is to work with people who are going to bring you up and elevate your performance. They'll let you know things that you didn't know already and bring you places that you might not have gotten to otherwise.

The most important decision I've made in business? The choices of people I have around me. When I first started I brought everybody with me, my homies from the neighborhood, criminals. I just said, 'Come on everybody, we made it.' Then I had to realize we didn't make it. I made it.

This is a chance for me to listen and learn. There's no more important and rewarding part of my job.

The biggest direct influence on my career is Ben Edlund, who gave me my first real professional break and, through his friendship and example, turned me into a writer and a more critical thinker in general.

I have met with hundreds of young fashion designers, hundreds of fashion startups, hundreds of CEOs and business leaders. All I do is get to ask questions of professionals in the industry. I learn from every conversation. It is the best education I could have.

Once a month, go to lunch with someone who knows more about your business than you do.

Collaborate with people you can learn from

The best gift an educator can give is to get somebody to become self reflective.

I wanted to just surround myself with people who I think are better than I am, whether they're actors or directors or producers, so that I could learn from them.

I'm going to make mistakes, I just have to be able to learn from them as quickly as possible. To learn faster, I watch film of myself and other good point guards, and then breaking down my mistakes and really analyzing them and seeing where I could have made better decisions.

I always learn something from every actor I've ever worked with. I always pick something from them.

I learn lessons with every interview I give.

The thing is, I wasn't surrounded by lots of people who were helping me build a career.

Will I become a coach in the future? No way. I'd never be able to put up with someone like me.

To keep the edge, you just keep doing something new. I'm not gonna say that working is easy, but while I'm doing it, I'm just a happy little moron - that's how my girlfriend describes me. The fact that nothing might happen with those things is not the point. The point is, I'm doing new things, and I have a good feeling in my soul.

I suppose I have very undesirable traits. I am very critical, which is very undesirable. But it is good from a business point of view.

As a director, I really wanted to learn and I needed to get away from my own stuff to figure out how to just do things and work with good people.

I don't accept my business the way it is, to be honest. I don't like what it's become. I don't blame anyone for it becoming the way it has. It's got its own hideous natural progression, just like world events.

To question your own process is a necessity. If you don't question yourself, it's impossible to improve.

I don't have an MBA, and I didn't go to Yale. I'm not an academic person and wasn't a good student. Instead, I've been taught by some of the most inspiring people in the world.

I've made a lot of career mistakes. A lot. Actually, a lot of personal ones, too.