Judd Apatow famous quotes

Don't be a jerk. Try to love everyone. Give more than you take. And do it despite the fact that you only really like about seven out of 500 people.
-- Judd Apatow

#People #Giving #Trying

You hear people say: "One day, when I'm in a good position I can make my passion project." I've seen a lot of people get into that position and not make it.
-- Judd Apatow

#Passion #People #One Day

College is the reward for surviving high school. Most people have great fun stories from college and nightmare stories from high school.
-- Judd Apatow

#Fun #School #College

Maybe you just get so attached to the music of your youth that you think it's better than what's coming out now.
-- Judd Apatow

#Thinking #Youth #Coming Out

Eventually, the nerds and the geeks will have their day.
-- Judd Apatow

#Nerd #Geek

Nowadays, when kids decide they like an artist, they'll absorb everything that artist has ever done in a single night.
-- Judd Apatow

#Kids #Artist #Night

The moment you think of a joke is the best moment.
-- Judd Apatow

#Thinking #Moments #Jokes

I try to just save a fresh, clear head for whoever I'm working with, so hopefully it's helpful that there's someone who doesn't have to sit in the editing room for 12 hours a day, and who's blinded by the massive footage and options that they have.
-- Judd Apatow

#Editing #Trying #Rooms

I am always driven by the terror of humiliation.
-- Judd Apatow

#Design #Driven #Humiliation

I don't really get attached to anything. I'm pretty brutal about cutting stuff. With each successful movie, I've discovered anything that's not connected to the immediate story is going to be cut out of it.
-- Judd Apatow

#Cutting #Successful #Stories

I think that everything I do tends to root for the underdog.
-- Judd Apatow

#Thinking #Roots #Underdog

Deer are like dogs. Except for Bambi, they're pretty personality-less.
-- Judd Apatow

#Dog #Personality #Deer

I always thought that Seth [Rogen] was a fun, caustic, bombastic, sweet, underdog-type of person that I would root for the way you used to root for Bill Murray or John Candy in "Stripes." Seth had something that very few people you encounter have: he had a writer's mind and he had his own comic point of view.
-- Judd Apatow

#Sweet #Fun #Views

No matter how much you love someone, on a bad day, you could say something terrible. All of the little things that you are saving to say, that you're mad about but never express, sometimes come out, all at once. We all have these terrible moments. That's just part of being human.
-- Judd Apatow

#Bad Day #Mad #Saving

The hard part about getting much attention is that people start dissecting what you do.
-- Judd Apatow

#People #Attention

I don't think there's that many great 90-minute comedies.
-- Judd Apatow

#Thinking #Comedy #Minutes

People are disappearing from movies, and normal human behaviour is disappearing from movies... You are not always fighting a creature in life. That's part of life, it's a pretty big part of life, but it's not all of life.
-- Judd Apatow

#Fighting #People #Behaviour

A lot of the turning points happen in high school and in college, and it defines a lot of how you see the world and how you decide to defend yourself from the world. Some people - their defense mechanism is, I'm really smart or I'm sexy or I'm the leader. And other people - they hide or they make jokes.
-- Judd Apatow

#Sexy #Smart #School

Most people are really fighting to not be adults. And, when it happens, it's a big transition. And a lot of that is just awful. It's awful to have to get a job and really be responsible for other people. And it is funny, too. Like, we're all kind of little idiot kids trying to act like we know what we are doing.
-- Judd Apatow

#Jobs #Kids #Fighting

I still feel like a weird kid who is about to take a punch in the face. So, I think it's permanent.
-- Judd Apatow

#Kids #Thinking #Faces

I didn't want to be a director for hire. It really just took me a long time to learn how to direct and to feel up to the job.
-- Judd Apatow

#Jobs #Long #Directors

I love when people work together who know each other very well. Some of my favourite movies are people who are close friends or families.
-- Judd Apatow

#People #Working Together #Close Friends

I really think more about being honest and truthful about feelings and how people behave for the movies that I direct, but I also love movies like Zohan and Anchorman, just balls to the wall, how much can you make people laugh in one 90 minute period.
-- Judd Apatow

#Anchorman #Wall #Thinking

In terms of the emotional underpinning, if you've been in relationships, you understand what's happening.
-- Judd Apatow

#Emotional #Term

I don't think I'm going to get so mature that I lose touch with the whatever wounded part of myself that feels the need to be funny. I'm already old enough that I realize that's not going to happen.
-- Judd Apatow

#Thinking #Needs #Realizing

I have to go back to vinyl every once in awhile, even if my kids don't want to hear it. I'm much more likely to be listening to Wilco or the Avett Brothers.
-- Judd Apatow

#Brother #Kids #Listening

There are people who like short movies, and I think they should just watch our movies on DVD because they can pause, go to the bathroom, eat dinner, and come back to it.
-- Judd Apatow

#Thinking #Dvds #People

Every time I'm in editing, there's always a moment where you think, "Maybe this should be six or seven minutes shorter, but I'm losing character and story that I think is important." When I like things, I'm not in a rush for them to end.
-- Judd Apatow

#Character #Thinking #Editing

It's funny when people debate about music, because they get so passionate about what they enjoy.
-- Judd Apatow

#People #Passionate #Debate

I feel the responsibility to make things which on some level have something positive to say.
-- Judd Apatow

#Responsibility #Levels #Feels

I started a radio show where I interviewed comics.And I interviewed Leno and Seinfeld and John Candy and Father Guido Sarducci and Garry Shandling, all when I was 16.And they kind of told me what to do.
-- Judd Apatow

#Father #Radio #Kind

I used to scream at everybody at the beginning of my career. I'd get really emotional. I'd project all my issues about my parents and safety onto the executives, so every conversation where they gave a note was life or death and you don't love me.
-- Judd Apatow

#Emotional #Careers #Issues

I need to find people who I respect so I can respect them, and they'll like being respected so they'll respect me, and that's like a marriage.
-- Judd Apatow

#People #Needs #Respect Me

I love Coldplay. I love Steely Dan - Steely Dan's probably one of my top three bands of all time.
-- Judd Apatow

#Three #Band #All Time

There's nothing more fun than debating and defending your taste in music.
-- Judd Apatow

#Fun #Taste In Music #Taste

The thing that ruined your life makes you good at your work. And then you get rewarded at work, so you don't bother to fix it in your life.
-- Judd Apatow

#Bother #Ruined

My dad was a big fan of comedy. He wanted to be a stand-up. He loved Lenny [Bruce]. He also loved Lord Buckley and jazz and stuff. He was a hipster. My parents were kind of beatnik-y, you know, for Salt Lake City. But my humor, I think, came from wanting to disarm people before they hit me.
-- Judd Apatow

#Dad #Hipster #Thinking

Parents don't realize that when they teach you about the Holocaust too early, it ruins you for life.
-- Judd Apatow

#Holocaust #Parent #Ruins

The ones [comedies] that I always liked, whether it's Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, or Fast Times of Ridgemont High, they were all about two hours, or a little bit over two hours. With that extra 15 or 20 minutes, you can get to real character and you're not just stuck in plot.
-- Judd Apatow

#Real #Character #Two

As a kid, I was obsessed with the Who. They were the most important band to me. Songs like "I'm One" helped me get through high school.
-- Judd Apatow

#Song #School #Kids

I have a four-and-a-half-year-old and, when she was two and a half, she would make my wife and I do voices, like Woody and Jessie the Cowgirl, or Elmo, or Yogi Bear and Booboo. If we didn't do it, she would scream at us. So, my wife and I would have adult conversations as Yogi Bear and Booboo. It was just a nightmare year.
-- Judd Apatow

#Years #Two #Voice

I've always appreciated people like Graham Parker or Loudon Wainwright III, who spend their entire lives writing songs and working their ***** off just to have complete artistic freedom. They're just sharing their lives with you through their music. That's the same kind of work that I'm trying to do, in my own weird way.
-- Judd Apatow

#Song #Writing #People

When I notice that all the beats sound exactly the same, it starts to wear on me.
-- Judd Apatow

#Sound #Beats

I definitely learned to embrace the quiet moments onstage from Garry Shandling - relaxing and not fighting with the crowd, not raising your voice, not ever trying to win them over.
-- Judd Apatow

#Fighting #Winning #Voice

It's funny, now there are so many bands that I can never remember any of their names. Maybe it's because I'm old.
-- Judd Apatow

#Names #Band #Remember

I don't want to be ordinary. I'm willing to do the work. I'm willing to suffer the indignities of comedy because I want to be great. I don't want to just be good. I want to be great.
-- Judd Apatow

#Suffering #Ordinary #Want

A lot of bands that are great disappear a little bit faster than they used to. They don't get as much support for the long haul. You have to be pretty tough to hang in there.
-- Judd Apatow

#Long #Support #Band

Back in the old days, everyone was shocked if a band had a sponsor for their tour. Now, Bob Dylan can do a commercial for Victoria's Secret and people don't really blink; the Beatles' songs are in all sorts of commercials these days and it doesn't seem to offend anybody. The times are changing.
-- Judd Apatow

#Song #People #Secret

When people lose their jobs, they can either get another job or be entrepreneurs. In the music industry, a lot of people have attempted the latter by starting their own labels, but in the age of digital downloads, it's very difficult to succeed.
-- Judd Apatow

#Jobs #People #Entrepreneur

My grandfather was Bob Shad, one of those legendary jazz and blues producers - he worked with Charlie Parker and Dinah Washington, and he produced Janis Joplin's album [1967's Big Brother & the Holding Company]. He always owned small labels as well - he had a label called Mainstream Records in the 70s.
-- Judd Apatow

#Brother #Grandfather #Albums

When you make a movie, you just send it off into the world. You never actually live it with the crowd.
-- Judd Apatow

#World #Crowds

If you watch the arcs of so many comedians, at some point, they just become themselves.
-- Judd Apatow

#Comedian #Watches #Arcs

I get the most starstruck around musicians. I get tongue-tied and don't know what to say. I'm so jealous of them. When you make a movie, you're constructing something - it's a little bit like making an album. But after musicians make an album, they get to perform it live and experience it in front of a crowd.
-- Judd Apatow

#Jealous #Musician #Albums

I remember before I did my HBO special, Chris [Rock] screamed at me - in a loving way, but still. He was like, "You need to do 200 shows in a row and a month straight on the road before you even think about recording a special!" And I had literally booked two weeks on the road and then went right into the recording. It put me in a panic, but it also made me work harder and made me realize that everyone works differently, and that's okay.
-- Judd Apatow

#Hard Work #Thinking #Hbo

There are people that entertainment is something they do at the end of a long hard day at work, and they want to be entertained and have it over quickly. They're like, "Entertain me fast!"
-- Judd Apatow

#Long #People #Want

I was a big TV kid.When I was a kid, I would go home at 3:00 and watch TV straight through to the end of Letterman at 1:30 in the morning.I was obsessed with comics.And I would watch Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno and study them as if it was Tolstoy.
-- Judd Apatow

#Morning #Home #Kids

There are only so many hilarious actors so when they cross-pollinate, people assume it's always the same actors and directors.
-- Judd Apatow

#People #Directors #Actors

I still feel like a nerd.
-- Judd Apatow

#Nerd #Feels #Stills

There was definitely a period when I just felt out of sync with earth.
-- Judd Apatow

#Earth #Sync #Periods

I always see other people as predecessors and admire them.
-- Judd Apatow

#People #Admire

Up until 'Bridesmaids,' the general consensus was that women preferred comedy a bit softer.
-- Judd Apatow

#Bridesmaids #Comedy #Consensus

There's something honorable about holding out for love and not breaking up for the sake of the baby. I see people get divorced, and there is a part of me that thinks, I wonder how hard they tried?
-- Judd Apatow

#Baby #Thinking #People

I'm making a movie about relationships, and I'm surrounded by guys scared of talking to girls.
-- Judd Apatow

#Girl #Talking #Guy

My way of dealing with the world has always been to make fun of it and observe it but not take part in it.That's how I became a writer. But when you have kids, suddenly you have to be part of things. It leads almost to a breakdown because your whole defense mechanism is now really destructive.
-- Judd Apatow

#Fun #Kids #Defense

To me, I've never understood why there is any question about are women as funny as men.
-- Judd Apatow

#Men #Understood

Well, every movie is an experiment. And the only way you can grow at what you're doing is to take chances. You can't try to stick with what worked last time.
-- Judd Apatow

#Trying #Way #Lasts

I put on a big show when I write something I think is funny.
-- Judd Apatow

#Writing #Thinking #Bigs

I think a lot of studios today are run by women, and we are entering a time when a lot of women have evolved in Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade and wanted to become writers and comedians.
-- Judd Apatow

#Running #Thinking #Cities

I love magazines and film critics, so I eat it up. I'm not one of those people who says 'I never read anything.' I generally read all of it.
-- Judd Apatow

#People #Magazines #Film

I'm the guy who gets uncomfortable. That's why I was able to write 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin' and 'Knocked Up.' I believe in those guys.
-- Judd Apatow

#Believe #Writing #Years

It's so difficult to shock America these days.
-- Judd Apatow

#America #These Days #Shock

People like the comedy more when they care about the characters.
-- Judd Apatow

#Character #People #Care

All of my jokes were about not being able to meet anybody. I didn't have any insight into anything - even my own insecurities.
-- Judd Apatow

#Insecurity #Able #Insight

For me, until I know that the audience really gets what I'm trying to communicate I'm not done.
-- Judd Apatow

#Trying #Done #Communicate

I wanted to see how funny I could be without making the choice that every 10 minutes something big and visual had to happen.
-- Judd Apatow

#Choices #Minutes #Bigs

I've had movies bomb with terrible reviews, I've had movies make a lot of money with terrible reviews, I've had movies get good reviews and make money. And I like it best when the movies do well and the reviewers like them.
-- Judd Apatow

#Bombs #Making Money #Reviews

Every day I live by only one rule, be a good guy.
-- Judd Apatow

#Guy #Good Guy #Live By

I think a lot of Hollywood is in retreat right now trying to figure out how to make money and make the safest bets.
-- Judd Apatow

#Thinking #Trying #Hollywood

I always felt as a kid that I was underappreciated, invisible or weird, but I've always secretly thought people would one day appreciate what is different about me. I'm always putting that message out there.
-- Judd Apatow

#Kids #People #Appreciate

Television is much more difficult because at every moment the network can force you to change things based on their belief about what would make it popular. You're in a constant debate with a gun at your head, and the gun is cancellation. So it's hard to win the arguments.
-- Judd Apatow

#Gun #Winning #Television