- I feel like, on a more macro scale, there's started to be a relationship between filmmakers and people who watch their films - you know, on Twitter and on the Internet.
- I was re-watching 'E.T.' recently, and that scene where they're all around the pizza, bringing the pizza in, and gambling and stuff together, it's such an amazing tone, it's so rough, and nobody's really talking about anything, and it feels like you're in that room with them.
- 'Jurassic Park' movies don't fit into a specific genre. They're sci-fi adventures that also have to be funny, emotional, and scary as hell. That takes a lot of construction, but it can't feel designed.
- I feel like we've found an interesting little corner of the sandbox here as far as the way we're telling sci-fi stories. I don't think it's limited to sci-fi - I think anything fantastic can co-exist with people you and I know, and not these hyper-real movie people.
- I like how you can go back and watch David Lean and John Ford and see the influence that had on Steven Spielberg, especially David Lean, in the camerawork, and yet, you don't watch any Spielberg movie and think of David Lean. Once you're looking for it, you see it all, but it's not in your face.
- I didn't watch horror movies when I was a kid. I didn't watch any bad movies.
- 'Jurassic World' takes place in a fully functional park on Isla Nublar. It sees more than 20,000 visitors every day. You arrive by ferry from Costa Rica. It has elements of a biological preserve, a safari, a zoo, and a theme park. There is a luxury resort with hotels, restaurants, nightlife and a golf course. And there are dinosaurs.
- I love the challenge of having one character who is traveling back in time to find someone. Nowadays, the only way we think to find someone is on Facebook.
- I'm gullible. I think people mean what they say.
- Nobody wants to make a bad 'Flight of the Navigator' remake. There's just no interest. We're going to do it if it's good.
- I think, if you can, it's OK to put something in a movie because it makes you feel good.
- I was not a kid who watched every movie. I watched a very small number of movies over and over again.
- I'm from Oakland and San Francisco, so I feel like the Pacific Northwest starts there and goes north - so, it's home to me.
- I'm a 'Star Wars' kid. I'm a 'Back to the Future' kid. I'm a Spielberg kid.
- I've said before: 'If you're going to earnestly sing a song around a campfire, you'd better be a Muppet!' Or else we're just not going to buy it.
- I think that no relationship goes completely according to plan or the way you wished it had.
- I like to believe that intimate moments between characters don't need to be relegated to independent films.
- I love big movies, and I love big moments.
- I live in Vermont, and we don't have a tax incentive there, and therefore, we don't have professional crew there.
- I tell you, man, I'm every bit as a 'Star Wars' fan as anyone else.
- 'Jurassic Park' isn't about the bad luck of three people who keep getting thrown into the same situation.
- Like a lot of people my age, I grew up on Amblin movies. They're a part of who I am as a filmmaker and, arguably, as a person.
- There's no shame in being romantic at all. I think people want to feel that sense of romance, which is rarely even attempted anymore.
- Jake Johnson wanted to make clear that he was the great American actor, not just the funny guy on 'New Girl.'
- That's the thing about leaks: sometimes they aren't misinterpreted or false.
- We've all been disappointed by new installments of the stories we love. But with all this talk of filmmakers 'ruining our childhood,' we forget that right now is someone else's childhood. This is their time. And I have to build something that can take them to the same place those earlier films took us.
- There's no such thing as good or bad dinosaurs. There are predators and prey. The T-Rex in 'Jurassic Park' took human lives and saved them. No one interpreted her as good or bad.
- We would go back and maybe not say that thing to our dad that we said, or maybe be a little nicer to someone who we cared about and had a relationship with when we were young. You know, they're subtle things, but we carry those with us forever. And I think that regret and time travel are intrinsically linked to me.
- The best of all kinds of movies are character-driven, and I definitely don't want to lose sight of why Derek and I started to write movies together in the first place.
- [on being chosen to direct Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)] This is not a job or an assignment. It is a seat at a campfire, surrounded by an extraordinary group of storytellers, filmmakers, artists and craftspeople. We've been charged with telling new stories for a younger generation because they deserve what we all had - a mythology to call their own. We will do this by channeling something George Lucas instilled in all of us: boundless creativity, pure invention and hope.
- [on the negative reviews of The Book of Henry (2017)] It came to us as a bit of a shock. We did not anticipate that level of vitriolic dislike for the film. In the end, do I want to be somebody who pleases both audiences and critics? Absolutely. Is that hugely disappointing? It is. (...) I do stand by the movie. I know it's something I'm very proud of, and everyone who made it is very proud. [June 2017]
- And if I've learned anything from this process, it's that you can make some pretty insane concepts go mainstream if you execute them right. A lot of the stuff we love now sounded crazy to somebody once. Most new things do. [Nov. 2015]
- Directors require a level of confidence that can border on the delusional. You have to push it right up to the edge of arrogance, but never cross the line. [Nov. 2015]
- I try to question my choices, learn from my mistakes and always listen to those around me who might have a better idea. [Nov. 2015]
- [on producer Kathleen Kennedy before she fired him] Kathy is someone who has been a mentor my entire life, but I didn't know it until I started working with her, and I saw how much of her soul and of her storytelling skill and her ability to read into the humanity of an individual goes into the films that she makes and how much of what I've loved about so many of those films came from her. It's something that I learn more about everyday. At this moment, she is really my key collaborator in what I'm doing, along with a group that she has built of incredible thinkers and storytellers. It's going to certainly result in a movie very different from any that I've ever made because it's not just me. It's a group of people who deeply care about it. [July 2017]
- [why he's still the right director for "Star Wars" after the critical failure of The Book of Henry (2017)] Not only did I grow up on these stories, like all of us did, [but] I think that the values of "Star Wars" are values that I hold very close and very dear in my life. I feel that the message of the way that the Force teaches you to treat other people and show respect for others, and the way it guides you through life, is really important to me. And I hope everybody would realize that that set of stories has affected me as deeply in my life as it has affected them. [July 2017]
- In America right now, it is difficult to make art. [July 2017]
- [on The Manchurian Candidate (1962)] I went in thinking it would be a masterfully directed political conspiracy thriller, which it was, but was also completely bananas. I couldn't believe some of the choices made. That film gave me permission to get a little bit weird in my storytelling. Once you've seen an old lady execute a Korean POW while Frank Sinatra looks on in complacency, you know you can go to crazytown and the audience will stay with you. It's not easy, but it's possible. [2015]
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