Top 33 Rob Reiner Quotes

We agreed that we cannot let personal political attacks get in the way of doing the very best we can for California’s children.

Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that’s a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect.

The most important thing is that you be a good person and you live by the golden rule of do unto others. If you live by that, that’s all I care about.

Every single person in jail for a violent crime had a nightmare childhood.

I love the idea of making movies that kids and adults can go to together and both get something out of it, and not just, ‘Oh, I’ve got to take my kid to the movie because they want to see the next, you know, ‘Hannah Montana’ movie or whatever.’

I think Jews are the smartest people in the world.

They make three types of movies, and if you don’t make one of those three, you have to find independent financing: It’s either big-action superhero tent-pole thing, or it’s an animated film, or it’s an R-rated, raunchy sex comedy. They don’t make movies about real people.

If I know a guy who’s a really good improvisational actor, I’d be foolish not to let him because he’ll come up with goodies and all kinds of little freebies that you get.

I actually love Stephen King’s writing. I mean, we, actually, at Castle Rock, we’ve made seven movies out of Stephen King books.

As far as getting my start, it was really Norman Lear, even aside from being on ‘All in the Family.’ He helped me get my start as a director. He was the one who said, ‘Let him do ‘Spinal Tap.’ Let him give it a try,’ because I had been trying for years to get that thing off the ground.

It’s the only way I really know how to tell the story is to be able to kind of live through the characters. So when I find something that resonates with me, it’s usually because it cuts to something very real inside of me; something that I’ve gone through or experienced.

You have to give people the pleasure of giving you.

To me, acting is like a party. It’s like a fun thing to do. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have to agonize about anything.

The marketing costs are insane now. So even if you’ve got a picture like ‘Flipped’ which cost under $14 million, or $13.5 million, you’re still going to spend on an national basis, if you release with a good national release, you’re still going to spend, you know, $30-$40 million.

Martin Scorsese is one of the great filmmakers of all time.

I love it when people come up to me and they say a line. Like, you know, ‘My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.’

I know how sobering and exhausting parenthood is. But the reality is that our children’s future depends on us as parents. Because we know that the first years truly last forever.

I don’t think you should necessarily listen to a celebrity just because he is one. But if you can marshal your celebrity and really steep yourself in whatever issue you’re trying to promote, it can actually move the ball forward, and we’ve done that.

You work with every actor differently. It’s like if you’re a mother, if you have children, some children need more discipline. Other children, you back off of a little bit and let them be. It’s the same way with actors. Some actors need a lot of hand holding. Other actors like to be let be, and you let them go.

The first time I ever met Stephen King, he came up to me, and we went to shake hands, and he had, like, this fake rubber rat that he kind of, you know, shook at me. You know, and I said, ‘No, this is a cliche – this can’t be. Stephen King is trying to scare me with a fake rat?’ It was just really weird.

When I show up to act in a movie for somebody else, I just want to be nice and helpful and do what they want because I know how difficult it is to make a movie. I don’t want to cause any problems. So you show up and do your job, and I think if a director understands that, you don’t make a lot of demands.

I acted when I was young, but at 19, I had my own theater company where I acted but also directed. I also did some theater in Los Angeles. So I was always wanting to direct, even before I became an established actor.

I’d never ask an actor to do something I couldn’t do – not that I’m the best actor in the world – but if I can do it, then I know that anyone I hire can do these things.

I remember once, years ago, I met Sting, and he told me that he had seen ‘Spinal Tap’ 50 times. He said: ‘Every time I watch it, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.’

It’s a very slow process – two steps forward, one step back – but I’m inching in the right direction.

They always say girls mature faster than boys, but I don’t think that’s true because I think girls just are more mature than boys. We’re always trying to catch up to them.

I don’t think anybody’s all good or all bad.

Something is wrong here, and it’s more than easy access to guns or violence on TV. It’s about lack of love and attachment to loving people early in life.

When I read ‘Stand By Me,’ it was like, ‘This is a look back at the same time period when I was growing up, and it was about kids, but it really felt like what it was like to have those powerful feelings of friendship at age 12.’ That’s what got to me.

People can be ignorant and still have loving, human qualities.

I saw ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel.’ I liked it. I saw ‘The Fault in Our Stars,’ and I could see why young girls like it. But it dropped off like crazy in the second weekend. I liked ‘Fed Up’ – I love documentaries. I go to a lot of documentaries.

There’s not one film that I’ve ever made that could get made today by a studio, not one – even ‘A Few Good Men’ because it’s an adult courtroom drama, and studios do not make them any more. And so every movie that I make, have made and will make is always going be independently financed.

I act once in awhile if something comes up that seems fun. I like to do it – it’s a lot of fun because there’s no responsibility. You let other people have the headaches. The director has all of the headaches.