I went to a public high school and most of the comedy was coming from the black kids and the Asian kids and the Hispanic kids. And, the coolest kids to me where always the black kids. They were always fashion forward and they always dressed the coolest. They were always the best dancers, and just the coolest people.
— Brett Ratner
You can't show a four-hour movie in a theater, really.
When I do short films, I try to do something completely out of my comfort zone, out of my element.
Before I did 'Rush Hour,' I was a big fan of Jackie Chan movies and I had seen all of them.
I want to print books by people in the film industry.
I'm not invited to the Vanity Fair dinner where they watch the Oscars - or even the Oscars themselves - so I sit at home and watch it with a bunch of close friends.
They say your childhood influences your tastes and interests, or your approach if you're an artist. So what you create, whatever you saw, whatever your childhood was like - it influences how you're going to end up.
I've watched 'Being There' over 50 times, and every time I watch it, I love every frame. I just wish I had directed it myself.
I fear God and respect God and love God.
I'm definitely not a nerd.
Do I have a small movie in me? Yeah, probably, when I'm 60. But I'm not Hal Ashby, I'm not Roman Polanski. I'm true to myself. Whether you like it or not.
I love 'Guitar Hero,' and I think it's a part of pop culture.
Listening is harder than just acting. Listening is the hardest part.
Movies are the biggest export in the world, the biggest American export. It influences people all over the world.
Woody Allen is in his '70s and he's making movies, so I look forward to getting there.
When you're fearless, you take more risks because you're less conscious of failure or what can go wrong.
When you're the director, you kinda do all the work.
I'm not tied to budgets. I'm tied to the story that I want to tell, and how much it's going to cost is up to whatever the economic situation of the studio is.
I love that feeling of going into a packed theater.
I've been a book collector since I was young, since I was a kid.
In my public life, I'm just a guy who enjoys having fun.
Miami Beach - that's where I grew up, in a middle-class Jewish family led by my maternal grandfather. Me, my great-grandmother - a Holocaust survivor, who was my roommate - my grandparents, my mom and her brother all shared a four-bedroom house.
I don't have any regrets.
I got a Super 8 camera when I was eight years old, and I just wanted to tell stories - I love telling stories.
I hate the iPhone. I love the BlackBerry - BlackBerry wins in my opinion. The iPhone is a toy.
People can criticise all day long, I think I've proven myself, I think I deliver. And I agree, box office does not mean a movie's good, but I feel like I'm making good movies and I'm delivering in box office.
When I was 13, Eddie Murphy was to me what Chris Tucker was to 13-year-olds when I made 'Rush Hour.' And 'Rush Hour' really came out of the fact that I grew up watching 'Beverly Hills Cop' and '48 Hrs.'
At the end of the day, audiences just want to laugh and be entertained. They want to escape from their reality, and that's why we make movies, to get people to escape from the realities.
'Vacation' means titillating my taste buds.
I learn from every movie I do because on every movie I have a different experience.
Producing is making films without having to work sometimes. It's still making films, but it's a different job.
I look for stuff that I'm passionate about.
I'm not going to turn down an Oscar, but I'm not strategizing for one.
I'm a laugher and a lover of comedy.
Having love in your heart doesn't count for much if what comes out of your mouth is ugly and bigoted.
My mom had me when she was 16, and I was an only child, which is probably why I received a lot of love and didn't miss that my father wasn't around.
I learn more from the audience than I can from anybody else. Not from what they write on the scorecards, but how they respond to the movie while they're watching it - where they laugh and where they react.
I would love a robot butler.
I'm constantly being visually stimulated.
In this day and age, you need a lot of patience if you are in the movie business.
I never dreamed I would be producing the Oscars. That was a huge deal for me.
I love movie directors. I don't care who it is.
Everyone who knows me knows that I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body.
