Top 70 Justin Lin Quotes

I wanted to have fun after ‘Annapolis,’ and make a Western.

I left ‘Fast and Furious’ because I just felt like, at a certain point, after number six, there wasn’t another story that I wanted to tell.

I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but feel incredibly lucky to be in the position I am now and to be able to play a small part in trying to support talented, aspiring young filmmakers out there through a program like ‘Interpretations’ who, like me, had the desire and passion, but no connections to the industry.

I’m living my dream.

I think within the ideology of what ‘Trek’ is, that it actually makes the daunting task of making something new more manageable, because it’s part of ‘Trek’s’ very design to tackle new worlds and characters.

I consider everybody on ‘Fast’ my family, you know we grew up together.

It’s about supporting the many talented artists and filmmakers out there trying to create work from that marginalized point of view. Go out and buy tickets to their movies and plays, support their crowd sourcing campaigns, show the industry that there is a viable audience for this work.

The harder we push forward into the unknown the more it intensifies the reflection of humanity. That’s what I really love about ‘Star Trek.’

After I made ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’ and started taking meetings in Hollywood, I quickly learned that Asian Americans weren’t even in the conversation as a minority, since there wasn’t even a significant enough audience, and especially an audience for Asian American content.

My Taiwanese parents came to America with no money and supported my brothers and me as small business owners in Orange County, which is close to L.A. but about as far away from Hollywood as you can be.

We had a pretty good life, growing up in Taiwan, and I think my dad really made a concerted effort to say hey, we’re going to take a chance and go halfway around the world so that my kids can have more opportunities.

As a society, we’re not perfect by any means.

Obviously, ‘Fast’ has been a big part of my life.

Space is a big place.

Every time you try to do something different, you have to expect obstacles.

Do what you love. I’ve seen so many people through the years calculate and speculate on what films to do in order ‘to make it.’ And every time those projects crash and burn.

After ‘Furious 6,’ that was a natural break for me. It was a good time to step away.

I love Kubrick.

When I was growing up, the honor role kids were picked on by the jocks. And those kids said, ‘You know, 15 years from now, I’m going to be their boss and own them.’

Annapolis’ is a very personal journey about this working-class kid trying to find out who he is, and every time he steps into the ring we get a sense of who he is as a person.

If I make a film like ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’ or ‘Finishing the Game,’ I’ll protect it with everything I have.

It’s dangerous to buy the American Dream without questioning. We need to ask, ‘Why do I want this dream?’

Ang Lee and ‘Hulk,’ for instance – a movie about a guy with different-colored skin and a lot of repressed rage? Sounds like the perfect film for an Asian, to me!

If you watch ‘Fast and Furious 6,’ you do see that it’s a culmination of something and I think it’s the end of a chapter.

All of my definitions of family were heavily influenced by my ‘Star Trek’ experience.

When I did my first student film, it was a ten minute film and it cost $U.S.4,000. I worked three jobs to pay for that and I haven’t really slept since.

I grew up, from ages 8 to 18, watching reruns of ‘Star Trek’ with my dad and my mom when they got home from work.

For me, when I was growing up, everybody I knew was a ‘Star Wars’ kid.

Film is similar to a basketball game. When that buzzer sounds, win or lose, the only thing you can control is how much effort you put into it.

When I go on set, it’s very important, the lenses I choose, what I choose to frame or not frame and that’s how I make my movies.

My parents were unconventional for Asian parents.

Technology has grown so much that there’s a whole idea of gluttony. Sometimes you get carried away because you can have a camera go through the window, but do I need a camera go through the window? Those choices are up to the director.

I’m the child of immigrants.

My brothers and I would try to talk our dad into letting us stay up and watch ‘Star Trek.’ I remember watching it and feeling that a family is not just by blood, a family is a shared experience and that really stuck with me.

Fast and the Furious’ is really a postmodern Western.

At the end of the day, if you’re living by fear, you’re gonna get screwed in Hollywood.

For the longest time, the Asian-American community would talk about representation, but I think it’s also about the freedom to really shape, create, and explore issues that are important to us, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative, as long as it’s three dimensional.

Growing up, I felt there was nothing my dad couldn’t do, but didn’t get the chance to do when we moved. I think he latched on to ‘Trek’ because of the sense of exploration and discovery, and hope. I think that’s what he connected to.

You can’t cheat comedy. You know, it either is going to be there on the day you capture or it’s not.

As an Asian immigrant coming in, for the longest time I still had problems getting in the lot because they’re just not used to seeing someone like me who’s directing these films. I do think ultimately there’s a point where we can kind of just shed that label and become filmmakers.

You want to have pressure and tell stories that you find a real reason to tell, aside from any business reason. If business is your only reason, that always goes badly.

Definitely the hardest thing is to find time to be grounded with real life, but without it, I don’t think I’d be able to continue to grow as a filmmaker.

Hollywood should be global.

When you have an opportunity to do something again, the money goes up and people get more conservative.

We make movies and we all try our best and sometimes we connect with the audience, sometimes we don’t.

We came over when I was 8 from Taiwan. That was my life: going to school, working at the restaurant, playing basketball.

When I was making the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies, I wasn’t trying to make a ‘Fast and Furious’ movie.

Sometimes, I think it’s important to be a filmmaker first and be able to talk about whatever you want to after that.

They never complained, that’s what I love about my parents and it’s something that inspired me.

I’m so sick of independent films being co-opted by Hollywood. You’re making a project that’s small, really personal, and the first thing anyone asks in any meeting is, ‘Who’s in it?’ I’m like, ‘Are you kidding?’

Without ‘Annapolis,’ I wouldn’t have gotten ‘Tokyo Drift’ – I wouldn’t be here today. And, so, it’s part of who I am.

The great thing about a big studio movie is that you get to work with the best, the most talented craft people in the world. But you have to be able to communicate, trust, and empower everybody.

I remember when I was a kid, I’d watch ‘Kung Fu Theater’ on TV, and all the movies would star guys named things like ‘Bruce Lai’ – you’d never get the real Bruce Lee films. So when I finally saw ‘Enter the Dragon,’ I was like, ‘Holy cow, who is this guy?’

I loved basketball and grew up with the Lakers and Magic Johnson. That was a big part of me.

Working with Zhao Wei and Huang Xiaoming, they’re not just Chinese stars, they’re movie stars.

I’m extremely proud to be part of the ‘Fast’ franchise, it is an experience I will always treasure.

I loved ‘Fast,’ but I’m not a car guy.

That’s in the mission statement when you’re part of ‘Trek.’ It’s our job to try to be bold and push forward. You have to be conscious of that.

I think one of the great things is that when I got started, no one would return my calls, and now I get a lot of phone calls, which is good. I have options.

He was never a kung fu guy. Now, he’s Mr. Kung Fu. Oh, man. Even Chow Yun-Fat gets typed!

I get to make movies; I get to do what I love.

Growing up as an Asian American, we’re lucky to have two sentences in a history book about the Chinese-American experience.

You sometimes get the sense that when people make sequels, they get conservative. If something worked, they do it over and over and over again.

You can’t expect Hollywood to take a risk.

I’ve sat in so many meetings where they talk about converting movies to 3D just for the China market and just to make more money. I saw that people in China work long, long hours and that it’s expensive to go to the movies, and you want to rip them off for even more money? I don’t think that’s right.

When I think of high school, stills are so important: it’s all about the wallet with the kids – they define themselves with pictures, who they know, whose pictures they have. Yearbook pictures.

That’s the thing I truly enjoy, when you can work with good people who are very talented.

Star Trek’ is not just about literal exploration, but also the exploration of ourselves.

I get that a lot of people love ‘Star Wars’ – and I could see that you can love both and they can coexist in our lives. But the DNA of ‘Star Trek’ is different in as far as it’s human beings, it’s us in the future.