J. J. Abrams Quotes

We used to have more references to things that we pulled out because they almost felt like they were trying too hard to allude to something.

Mystery is more important than knowledge.

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

Don’t sell your story, just tell your story.

It’s more important you learn what to make movies about than how to make movies

It’s not a bad way to live once you let go of the idea that you deserve more.

I feel like in telling stories, there are the things the audience thinks are important, and then there are the things that are actually important.

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 cool to be a nerd. There’s a general understanding that smartphones didn’t come from jocks. The digital age was foreseen by a group of short-sleeved, buttoned-down, white-shirted guys and their female equivalents designing the very stuff that’s now ubiquitous.

I feel like the beauty of this age of filmmaking is that there are more tools at your disposal, but it doesn’t mean that any of these new tools are automatically the right tools. And there are a lot of situations where we went very much old school and in fact used CG more to remove things than to add things.

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

I’ve always liked working on stories that combine people who are relatable with something insane.

What’s a bigger mystery box than a movie theater? You go to the theater, you’re just so excited to see anything – the moment the lights go down is often the best part.

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.

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

I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid.

Honestly I’m excited about the possibilities of what comes next, and the funny thing is, that is sort of what “Star Wars” is kind of about. I mean, I remember being 10 years old and seeing that movie and leaving the theater and feeling like, oh, my God, anything is possible. And I feel like anything is possible right now. I don’t know what’s next, but I look forward to 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.

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

I love recording music.

Whenever a toddler sees a pile of blocks, he wants to tear it down.

Pitching is always a weird, difficult thing.

I hate to look at the stuff I’ve written and consider what it means or why I do it.

Maybe there are times when mystery is more important than knowledge. I realized that the white page is a magic box. Ultimately, the mistery box is all of us. Ubiquitous technologies. What comes next ? Mystery as catalyst for imagination.

When I was a kid, it was a huge insult to be a geek. Now it’s a point of pride in a weird way.