Jason Reitman Quotes

Most people see a documentary about the meat industry and then they become a vegetarian for a week. ~ Jason Reitman

The first set I remember was 'Ghostbusters.' It was a scene in which the street erupted. I remember even at seven years old thinking, 'Wow, if you direct a movie, you can break the streets of New York.' ~ Jason Reitman

I'm equally guilty of using technology - I Twitter, I text people, I chat. But I think there's something strangely insidious about it that it makes us think we're closer when in fact we're not seeing each other, we're not connecting. ~ Jason Reitman

I've been very, very lucky in my career, in my life - from day one. When aspiring directors say, 'What's your advice?' first I say, 'Be born the son of a famous director. It's invaluable.' ~ Jason Reitman

Growing up sucks, doesn't it? I understand why people wouldn't want to get old - but it'd be one thing if we became a culture obsessed with eating right, doing yoga, going to therapy and becoming at one with ourselves. That be great. But we don't do that. We seem to be obsessed with all the wrong ways to stay young. ~ Jason Reitman

What I do feel is that 'Up in the Air' is the most indicative film of 2009. It is the portrait of 2009. ~ Jason Reitman

I have one of the original 'Ghostbusters' guns in my house. ~ Jason Reitman

Directing is a reactionary job more than a creation job. The job is to react whether it's moment one, the first time you read the script or see an article or read a book or notice something happen on the street and have an idea for a movie, and it just continues from there on in. You're just reacting to dialogue, a performance, an audition, a headache, a piece of furniture, a piece of clothing. ~ Jason Reitman

Discover how little you know ... about the people you know. ~ Jason Reitman

Everything I've wanted to turn into a film becomes something new and different when it becomes a movie ... Each time I work with an author, I say to them, 'A book and a movie are different things.' ~ Jason Reitman

I've been so lucky - I worked with Jason Reitman twice, who has always been a really strong advocate for my voice, and has always really respected the scripts that I've brought him and is just the coolest. ~ Diablo Cody

Can you design a Rorschach test that's going to make everyone feel something every time - and that looks like a Rorschach test? It's easy to show a picture of a kitten or a car accident. The question is, how abstract can you get and still get the audience to feel something when they don't know what's happening to them? ~ Jason Reitman

Yeah, I was born in Montreal and I go back to Vancouver and Toronto a lot, so I have a sense of being Canadian, and I was raised by two Canadians, and my wife is Canadian, so yeah, I feel it. ~ Jason Reitman

There are only so many movies you can direct. And yet there are movies that I want to make sure make it to the screen in as honest a way as possible. ~ Jason Reitman

Each one of my films is personal; each one of my films is emotionally autobiographical. And I like directors who do that. ~ Jason Reitman

My high-school years were so mediocre - I moved out when I was 16 and started living with my girlfriend who was 10 years older. Apart from that, I was just a video nerd. ~ Jason Reitman

There certainly is no secret in that there are plenty of people who don't like plenty of my movies. Each one of my films is personal; each one of my films is emotionally autobiographical. And I like directors who do that. With each one of my films, I'm exploring one of my own issues and I try to expose myself a little in the film. ~ Jason Reitman

Filmmaking is a completely imperfect art form that takes years and, over those years, the movie tells you what it is. Mistakes happen, accidents happen and true great films are the results of those mistakes and the decisions that those directors make during those moments. ~ Jason Reitman

Most people are nostalgic in a way that they're fond of the past, but they still are happy that they are where they are now. You know, when you say, 'Oh, high school was this or that,' you don't want to go back. No matter how much you loved high school, you don't want to actually be back in high school. I certainly wouldn't. ~ Jason Reitman

I want my audiences to be as open-minded as my characters. ~ Jason Reitman

I went to college, I went pre-med, I thought I was going to be a doctor. ~ Jason Reitman

The first thing I say when people ask what's the difference [between doing TV and film], is that film has an ending and TV doesn't. When I write a film, all I think about is where the thing ends and how to get the audience there. And in television, it can't end. You need the audience to return the next week. It kind of shifts the drive of the story. But I find that more as a writer than as a director. ~ Jason Reitman

I think romance is a tool, comedy is a tool and drama is a tool. I really just want to tell stories that challenge the viewer, move people, make you laugh, perhaps push an idea about being open-minded but never settle on a genre or an opinion. I hate genre. I like movies that are original in their approach. ~ Jason Reitman

'Juno' really changed things for me and I get a lot of screenplays come in now, but I like to self-generate and I like to kind of pursue my own ideas. And I think the more personal the better. ~ Jason Reitman

And I certainly like being on a plane, next to a stranger, having conversations that you'd never otherwise have. You're unplugged, your phone doesn't work, you're not online. ~ Jason Reitman

Unlike with any other art form, filmmakers have this unique web of festivals. There are hundreds. It is a democratic system in which you submit films, and if they are good enough, they play. The only barrier to entry is the submission fee. ~ Jason Reitman

I don't know why I'm drawn to anti-heroes, but I certainly am. ~ Jason Reitman

Things like Facebook have made you feel as though you're connected to everybody. You've got a thousand friends on Facebook, but you don't actually talk to anybody. You're not close to anybody. ~ Jason Reitman

If someone else made 'Up in the Air' or 'Thank You For Smoking' or 'Juno,' I would have wanted to rip their head off. I need that same sort of passion for every project I take on. ~ Jason Reitman

And as a director, you make 1,000 decisions a day, mostly binary decisions: yes or no, this one or that one, the red one or the blue one, faster or slower. And it's the culmination of those decisions that define the tone of the film and whether or not it moves people. ~ Jason Reitman

Growing up the son of a director has made me very aware of the various turns that a directing career can take. Sometimes your films turn out exactly as you want. Sometimes they don't. I spent a lot of my childhood on sets. I think as a joke, my father gave me a line of dialogue in each of his films during the worst moments of my puberty. ~ Jason Reitman

When you make a movie, you do it so piecemeal. You're doing it, not only scene by scene, out of order, but shot by shot, line by line. And there's this idea that the director has the whole thing in his or her head and they're going to somehow weave it all together in the end. ~ Jason Reitman

I remember when I first met Jason Reitman with the 'Whiplash' script; he quickly became a mentor figure who guided me through the process and also protected me and made sure that when it came time to actually make 'Whiplash,' I was able to make exactly the movie I wanted to make. ~ Damien Chazelle

Creating a wonderful drama is an art form, while comedy is just entertainment. ~ Jason Reitman

I think it's a mistake for young filmmakers to just buy digital equipment and shoot a feature. Make short films first, make your mistakes and learn from them. ~ Jason Reitman

As far as writing, I like watching bad movies. Nothing stops me in my tracks more than watching a great film like 'The Godfather' or 'Dog Day Afternoon' or 'The Graduate.' You watch one of those, and you never want to write again. Whereas with bad movies, it makes you think, If that counts, I certainly could write. ~ Jason Reitman

[With comedy and wanting to make people laugh,] when you're a child, all you want is ANY kind of laugh. You get them to laugh, and great! - you've succeeded. And then it's "How FAST can I get them to laugh?" "How LONG can I get them to laugh?", "How HARD can I get them to laugh?". And then it becomes: "Can I laugh at something that makes them uncomfortable?", "Can I get them to laugh at something that challenges their beliefs? ~ Jason Reitman

I'm not going to have a perfect career. It's better to be Billy Wilder and make lots of movies and have five or six great ones than to make so few movies that when you make a bad one it crushes you. ~ Jason Reitman

Directing 'The Office' is kind of like someone going, 'Would you like to drive my Lamborghini?' And I'm like 'Yes, I would like to drive your Lamborghini. That sounds like fun.' ~ Jason Reitman

I'm a believer that people need to understand that filmmaking is not a perfect process for anybody. It is a process in which you find the film and the film finds you. And that is every film. ~ Jason Reitman

I've always had an underdog perspective. ~ Jason Reitman

I want my movies to be audience experiences. As much as I like Michael Haneke, I'm not going to make a Haneke film. That's just not in my DNA. ~ Jason Reitman

I'm a kind of private guy. ~ Jason Reitman

I have a strange fascination with the Midwest. I'm waiting to find out that my parents are actually from the Midwest. I grew up in Beverly Hills, up the street, and I just feel comfortable there. I've shot in Minneapolis, in Detroit, in St. Louis, in Omaha - they would say they're the Plains, not the Midwest - and I love it. ~ Jason Reitman

Humanizing good people is kind of boring and I don't really see the value in it ... humanizing tricky characters is exhilarating, and making audience films out of indie subjects excites me. ~ Jason Reitman

I used to have a group called Bad-Movie Saturday. Every Saturday, six of us would go see the worst movie that came out each weekend. It'd be noon in Burbank. It was just a running commentary. All executives - we would each talk through the movie and make jokes. ~ Jason Reitman

People want to know if I have a moral standpoint that they should be picking up on, and the truth is, I don't. I don't want people to think that I'm trying to tell them to feel a certain way. I think that's cheap filmmaking. ~ Jason Reitman

Doesn't every generation feel like the one that's coming up behind them doesn't know how to grow up? I'm not sure if we're progressively getting worse or if your perspective shifts. ~ Jason Reitman

My father wants to take your faorite song and play it better than you've ever heard.

I want to take your least favorite song, and play it so good that you like it. ~ Jason Reitman

I don't believe in director's cuts where you make things longer. The coolest thing was when the Coen brothers did a director's cut of 'Blood Simple,' and they made it shorter. ~ Jason Reitman

From the onset of the 'Live-Read' series, we wanted to hit all the major writers and Woody Allen is simply one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. He has ability to match pathos and comedy and drama and then turn it all on a dime. If you're going to make a series based on dialogue, you can't find much better than Woody Allen. ~ Jason Reitman

I'm not Michael Moore. I think Michael Moore wants to tell you how to think. He wants to give you answers. I make movies to raise my own personal questions and not to give answers. ~ Jason Reitman

Everyone wants to be loved; everyone wants to know where they're going in life; everyone wants to have a sense of direction and feel the next day is going to be better than today. We just all deal with it in a different way. ~ Jason Reitman

Comedy and horror are cousins; they're related. They both come from storytellers who want to specifically affect the audience and elicit specific reactions during the movie. ~ Jason Reitman

And the biggest improvement I see between 'Up in the Air' and 'Juno' and 'Thank You for Smoking' is that 'Up in the Air' deals with the complicated human stuff in a way that my other films have not. It's a more articulated film, and because of that, I'm most proud of it. ~ Jason Reitman

Rian Johnson's 'Looper' is inventive, entertaining, and thought-provoking in every way a movie can be. It is in fact the kind of movie that reminds us why we watch them and make them, a beautifully told story that deserves to be not only remembered, but acknowledged for its writing. ~ Jason Reitman

When characters change on screen, it makes you feel better about yourself. You think, 'Oh I change too, I'm constantly becoming a better person.' ~ Jason Reitman

When it comes to casting, I've been so lucky. I've worked with unbelievable actors who make me look better than I am and take the written word and make it honest. ~ Jason Reitman

I think, through comedy, sometimes we're allowed to discuss things that you'd never be able to talk about in a drama. ~ Jason Reitman

And over the course of the last six years, as I've directed more features and commercials, I've become better at articulating exactly how I want the audience to feel. ~ Jason Reitman

Really, it's the director's job to disappear and allow the movie to just feel. ~ Jason Reitman

Well, Toronto, I consider to be the birthplace of my films. I've made three films and this is the third one to premiere here in the same theater on the same day at the same time - they are my audience. They're the people that I think about while I'm writing, directing, and editing. I specifically make movies for them. ~ Jason Reitman

I truly loved Jason Reitman. I was there on his first film, 'Thank You For Smoking,' and I'd go work with him to do anything. ~ Sam Elliott

Good teams beat you with speed. Great teams beat you with spacing and timing. ~ Jason Kidd

You could love someone so strongly, for so long, and still forget - until the memories returned. ~ Jason Heller

People tell you not to work with children and animals, and I chose to work with a 7-year-old and several dinosaurs! ~ Jason O'Mara

Transformation is my favorite game and in my experience, anger and frustration are the result of you not being authentic somewhere in your life or with someone in your life. Being fake about anything creates a block inside of you. Life can't work for you if you don't show up as you. ~ Jason Mraz

I remember not having a hot water tank, so we had to use a kettle for hot showers. So, you know, we would put the kettle on and go have a shower, and then my mum would come bring three or four kettles in, just to heat them up. And it would take five, 10 minutes for every kettle to heat up. ~ Jason Day

Pretended like yellow tape
was some kind of
neighborhood flag
that don't nobody wave
but always be flapping
in the wind. ~ Jason Reynolds

When you believe in someone you profoundly increase their ability to have faith in themselves and achieve. When you love someone you imprint on their heart something so powerful that it changes the trajectory of their life. When you do both, you set into motion, a gift to the world…because those who are believed in and loved understand the beauty of a legacy and the absolute duty of paying it forward. ~ Jason Versey ~ Jason Versey

You need to believe in your passion, no matter how stupid or insane that might make you look to the rest of the world. ~ Jason Ellis

Everyone should be encouraged to start his own business, not just some rare breed that self-identifies as entrepreneurs. ~ Jason Fried

You come to a country music show and it's like a rock show, it's so different, it's just not what people think it is, it's really cool and I think that if people just give it a chance they'd see that it's really cool and I think that's what people are finally starting to see. ~ Jason Aldean

Working more doesn't mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more. ~ Jason Fried

The Ondřej feeling swept over him. The very thing he tried to explain to Sheila over the phone from France. The feeling that drove him to fly to Japan. You fall too fast, Brian Caleb. Please don't be a pathetic idiot again. You be careful. His logical side screamed at him as he walked over to Jason and helped him down from the examination table. ~ Barry Brennessel

Because of the changes in the Padres team I played with last year, I felt like a veteran recently when I worked out with Jason Kendall and he told me he's liked listening to my records since he was a kid! ~ Garth Brooks

I just want to work with the best people I can get my hands on. ~ Jason Winston George

Which features you choose to include or omit have a lot to do with less software too. Don't be afraid to say no to feature requests that are hard to do. Unless they're absolutely essential, save time/effort/confusion by leaving them out. Slow down too. Don't take action on an idea for a week and see if it still seems like a great idea after the initial buzz wears off. The extra marinading time will often help your brain come up with an easier solution. ~ Jason Fried

Look at a guy like Ian McKellen, who is eighty or whatever, and he's just loving his work, and you can see that in the work. That defines what type of actor you are. And what kind of people want to work with you. And whether you can do this job for a long, long time. ~ Jason Clarke

I do have a core theology though. It's quite simple: God is love and He is always good. It's my position on everything. And I'm not much into debating it. I'd rather show than tell. ~ Jason Clark

We are transformational beings gravitating closer to the light of oneness. ~ Jason Micheal Ratliff

The Japanese Mafia. Tell me something, Jason, you ever hear anyone describe our thing as 'The Sicilian Yakuza'? Huh? ~ Neal Stephenson

I try not to put pressure on filmmakers to come up with a big scare at the beginning. I think that helps let the audience settle in and get to know the people they're about to spend 90 minutes with. Once the scarier stuff happens, it's scarier because of that. ~ Jason Blum

So we believe. Leo has to be alive." "You remember the time in Detroit, when he flattened Ma Gasket with a car engine?" "Or those dwarfs in Bologna. Leo took them down with a homemade smoke grenade made from toothpaste." "Commander Tool Belt," Jason said. "Bad Boy Supreme," Piper said. "Chef Leo the Tofu Taco Expert." They laughed and told stories about Leo Valdez, their best friend. ~ Rick Riordan

I tell you very honestly, 1 billion percent, I have never regretted leaving Metallica. ~ Jason Newsted

It's even autographed," Jason said, the awe evident in his voice.
"It's not personalized." Which was a silly thing to say, since he could obviously see it wasn't.
"Still," he said.
"Yeah, still." I could hear him saying, "Hey, guys, let me introduce you to my conversationally challenged host sister. ~ Rachel Hawthorne

We'll abduct Garian. Or Jason."
"And - ?"
"And dump them into the ocean. Nobody would ever pay a ransom for them. ~ Sherwood Smith

That's what I love about sketch comedy: a sketch is five minutes, then it goes dark, and there's the potential for something else. ~ Jason Sudeikis

What's up?" He nodded his head, playing it cool, then casually stepped away before silently returning to a sprint.
Playing hide-and-seek like babies, Jason thought. I hope I never fall in love. ~ Scott Cawthon

You don't have to live near the ocean for it to have an impact on you. And you don't have to live near the ocean for you to have an impact on it. ~ Jason Mraz

I would buy Barbies and take them apart and then remake their looks. I used them for hairstyling. It was a whole process. I had a lot of dolls - like 150. ~ Jason Wu

Are you sure you're okay, Taylor? Say something . . . normal." He gently tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, being careful to avoid the bump on her head.
Taylor stared up into Jason's amazing blue eyes. He really was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen.
With great effort, she pulled herself out of the dreamy depths of the Sexiest Eyes Alive and somehow managed a casual smile. She knew she should at least thank him for coming for her.
But then she noticed something she had somehow missed earlier. She peered more closely at Jason. "Wait a second - are you wearing makeup?"
Oh yes, there it was - a little trace of powder dusted across his face. And was that a smudge of eyeliner along his bottom lid . . . ?
This was too precious.
Taylor raised an eyebrow teasingly. "Gee, Jason, it's just a hospital - you really didn't need to get all gussied up."
And with that, Jason smiled. He turned to the doctor, finally satisfied.
"Okay. She's fine. ~ Julie James

I write about eight hours a day, and I throw away most of what I write. ~ Jason Molina

Being in love means you are completely broken, then put back together. The one piece that was yours is beating in your lover's breast. She says the same thing about hers. ~ Jason Molina

The Grand Canyon ... " Jason recalled that day on the Skywalk, when one of his jerk classmates turned out to be a wind spirit. "Dylan? Are you kidding me? I'm breathing Dylan?" "Yes," Kym said. "That seems to be his name." Jason shuddered. "I'll let him go as soon as I reach the surface. No worries." "Farewell, then," said the goddess. "And may the Fates smile upon you ... assuming the Fates survive. ~ Rick Riordan

Meaningful work, creative work, thoughtful work, important work - this type of effort takes stretches of uninterrupted time to get into the zone. But in the modern office such long stretches just can't be found. Instead, it's just one interruption after another. ~ Jason Fried

I wish I were a bird. I'd fly all the way up to the clouds and look down on this place, and then I'd go far away and never come back. ~ Jason Medina

Every time we spend a federal dollar, what we're doing is we're pulling money out of somebody's pocket, and we're giving it to somebody else. ~ Jason Chaffetz

What's nice is between 'Wolverine and the X-Men' and 'Thor,' I get to write two very different kinds of stories. Both of them really seem to scratch some itches for me. ~ Jason Aaron

The stupidest word Jason could have imagined. Utter nonsense. Supposedly it would unmake Maldor. He repeated the odd syllables in his mind, varying the inflection. If it failed, he could always try supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. ~ Brandon Mull