Top 44 J. J. Abrams Quotes

When I was a kid, among the other embarrassing things I would do, and there’s a list of stupid things, but I would make these dumb comedy tapes. I would often make prank phone calls, but I would also do it with friends.

You know, we’ve got to this place, where you go to a movie for one particular surgical fix. So, it’s like, I want the pulse-pounding action, or the insane falling-off-my-seat comedy, or the devastating, heart-breaking drama.

Making movies was more a reaction to not being chosen for sports. Other kids were out there playing at whatever; I was off making something blow up and filming it, or making a mould of my sister’s head using alginating plaster.

I have nothing against 3-D in theory. But I’ve also never run to the movies because something’s in 3-D.

I think when you’re 10 years old, it’s too much to see something with the threat of death in every episode. Kids are better left naive about certain things.

I love the idea of anthropomorphizing machines. I love the idea of taking technology and giving it a personality.

I love movies with spectacle but spectacle can be a performance, it doesn’t have to be a creature.

I am lucky, I’m the first to admit that.

You never want to have that ticking clock and know that you had all this time and didn’t use it.

When I was a little kid – and even still – I loved magic tricks. When I saw how movies got made – at least had a glimpse when I went on the Universal Studios tour with my grandfather, I remember feeling like this was another means by which I could do magic.

Ratings have changed, viewer habits have changed and the options for the audience have grown enormously, but I don’t think how you tell a story is fundamentally different.

The goal is always to do B material in an A fashion.

When you work on something that combines both the spectacular and the relatable, the hyperreal and the real, it suddenly can become supernatural. The hypothetical and the theoretical can become literal.

It’s a leap of faith doing any serialised storytelling.

What I’m still grappling with and learning how to do is to be looking and thinking cinematically, having come from television.

I’d love to do a movie where the monster is human, where the issue is not otherworldly, or horror or science fiction.

‘Star Trek’ was always a little bit closed emotionally. I never connected to the characters.

I think that even if you’re wondering if two characters are ever going to kiss, drawing out the inevitability is part of the fun. Whatever the genre happens to be.

People never know what they want, though everyone says they do. If they did, nobody would ever be surprised.

My mother is the coolest, most amazing person I know.

I’m a fast writer.

All I know is that I’ve made some big screw-ups, and I’ve done some things that have done all right. I just keep trying to learn from the mistakes I’ve made.

I have no style. There are certain people who just have a visual sense that defines their work. You could probably watch 30 seconds of anything they do and you’ll know exactly who directed it. I don’t have that skill.

All the times I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of a show that’s actually gotten on the air, it’s always that same mixture of excitement and utter fear.

Pitching is always a weird, difficult thing.

We live in an age of instant knowledge. And there’s almost a sense of entitlement to that.

With three kids you are just trying to survive. You can’t be fastidious.

The ability of a television series to make adjustments is something you’ve got to take advantage of.

I work with really hard-working people who are really good at what they do.

I try to work on shows that I would want to watch.

To me the interesting main character is never the one without flaws.

I find that it’s hard to fully examine one’s life and not have faith be part of the discussion.

I try to push ideas away, and the ones that will not leave me alone are the ones that ultimately end up happening.

I don’t try and write strong female characters or strong male characters, I just try and write, hopefully, strong characters and sometimes they happen to be female.

I’ve had the same friends since I was in kindergarten.

The Internet now provides an immediate and very clear consensus of what it is that the audience is experiencing. It’s something that you should never let lead you, and yet at the same time, you should never ignore it.

As a director/writer/producer, all you ever want is to work with actors who make you look better, who make the work you do seem as good as it can be and even better than it is.

Robotics are beginning to cross that line from absolutely primitive motion to motion that resembles animal or human behavior.

I believe in anything that will engage the audience and make the story more effective.

I think you have a passion and an obsession for something when it’s not necessarily ubiquitous.

I hope to make movies that are so small they don’t need to make anything to be profitable.

I’m obsessed with things that are distinctly analogue.

I’ve never done Twitter.

You can never guess or assume what anyone is going to think.