Quotes by James L. Brooks

About James L. Brooks:

James Lawrence "Jim" Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the CBS News broadcasts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1965 to work on David L. Wolper's documentaries. After being laid off he met producer Allan Burns who secured him a job as a writer on the series My Mother the Car.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

If you ever catch a great boss, it's just such a rare thing, and it's amazing.

James L. Brooks

I always think a successful television series is the best job because it gives you community, it doesn't demand temporary insanity the way movies do, and you can be almost a normal person.

James L. Brooks

Working on any show that works is the best job you can possibly have in any area of the business. You've got so much going for you, a good community, everybody's hanging together, and you get to do it every week.

James L. Brooks

I always think that the deal, once I do the script, sort of the experience I go through writing, which is everything you can imagine, but I always think it's the one thing I can do when I'm directing is say is that it's all about the actors, that I c...

James L. Brooks

I think television keeps on being a place where writers can go, and if they're successful, they can have their way, and they can have creative freedom.

James L. Brooks

Great things that can happen when you're doing a movie.

James L. Brooks

Kids in general make things fresh and alive and they have this great appreciation for, Holy mackerel, we're making a movie!

James L. Brooks

That's the great thing about a series: you're driving to work, and you have an idea for a story for your characters, and you can go into work, and it's gonna be a television show. I mean that's what's great about the job.

James L. Brooks

I value comedy. I value somebody who can be funny.

James L. Brooks

I laugh every day. There are days when my laughs are pretty hollow. Dust comes out of your mouth, and your bones make a funny sound. But I'm laughing.

James L. Brooks

I took some time out for life.

James L. Brooks

I love it if comedy reflects real life because to me it's more reassuring that we'll get through.

James L. Brooks

I love romantic comedy, but I think you have to have another idea that you're chasing along with romantic comedy.

James L. Brooks

You become so obsessed, and that's not a bad thing for a movie. Serve it with that sense that it's the whole world.

James L. Brooks

Things get very distorted when you do a movie, weirdly so.

James L. Brooks

Tone is up for grabs in what we do - what's the tone of the scene.

James L. Brooks

I think you have a pact with an audience in every picture, and I think the pact is to try and be truthful and to be real.

James L. Brooks

What does it mean for an actor to make a part his own? It means that he takes on what you had intended and starts to put in his own stuff so that it becomes something that could only happen if he played it.

James L. Brooks

I had a marketing idea that everybody hated, decency is sexy.

James L. Brooks

I have a lot of nightmares.

James L. Brooks

Author Bio

  • NameJames L. Brooks
  • DescriptionAmerican director, producer and screenwriter
  • AliasesJames Lawrence Brooks
  • BornMay 9, 1940
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionScreenwriter; Film Producer; Film Director; Writer
  • AwardsAcademy Award For Best Director; Writers Guild Of America Award; Primetime Emmy Award; Directors Guild Of America Award