James L. Brooks

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

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

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.

I don't know whether I have ideas all the time. I think I'm curious about things all the time; I think I'm always curious, and I think I'm always interested in whatever passes by, and I know I tend to think about things, and I tend to talk about things, and sometimes that takes root and gives me something to chase.

You know you're in love when you're more yourself than you ever imagined possible.

It's craziness to see yourself as damaged goods, so I was the goofy kid who'd stop a strange adult and say, 'Do you know how to get to Palm Avenue?' They'd say no, and I'd say, 'You go two blocks and turn right. You can't miss it'.

I'm big on research.

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.

Media reporting denied privacy to anybody doing what I do for a living. It was no longer possible to work on your picture in privacy.

Linking up the things you were with the things you become is what growing up is.

I was only in college, unfortunately, for a year. I think my major was public relations, and I had no idea what it meant except it seemed maybe attainable.

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

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