Top 130 Quotes & Sayings by Ron Howard - Page 2

When people asked me back then what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a basketball player, and I meant it. But I loved going to the movies.

When 'Apollo 13' appeared as an opportunity and I began to tackle that in as authentic a way as I possibly could, I really became enthralled by the philosophical side of space travel and why we need to explore - what it means to us here on Earth - all of those things. I became a huge proponent.

I think it gets overused and tossed around in ways that aren't true. Every impressive achievement is not genius.

I really liked the 'Pitch Black' DVD, and I liked the commentary.

I've been around a lot of artists who are also good at business, and... one minute they'll sound like an artist, and the next minute, they'll sound like the characters in 'Mad Men.' Jay-Z's a very good businessman, and he talks about it and enjoys it, but he doesn't shift.

There was a combination of shyness and just fear of looking stupid that kept me out of a lot of interesting creative conversations that I could have had at an early age.

The hardest thing which I've experienced is calling up my father, Rance Howard, who's a wonderful actor, and telling him I've had to cut him out of the movie, which I've had to do twice. That's a lump-in-the-throat phone call.

Can you imagine the first time they figured out how to mechanically raise somebody up through the stage and make them appear, or drop them down on a rope or a wire? It blew everybody's minds, I'm sure.

I didn't really listen to music when I was doing homework or when I - when I work on a script. I tend to drift to NPR and news.

I'm excited about what technology is offering storytellers and movie- and TV-makers.

The sooner we become a multi-planet species, the safer the species is, and the stronger the guarantee that we're going to continue to evolve.

As a documentarian, you think, 'Follow your curiosity.'

Richard Dreyfuss, when we were doing 'American Graffiti,' was pumping me to vote for McGovern. But I think I wound up going for Nixon. I thought he could get us out of the Vietnam War quickly. Ha.

I don't believe in perfection, but those acrimony-free gaps during our family holidays can be downright blissful.

I was a Beach Boys guy, but I was won over. In '64, as the radio stations were creating this duel between The Beatles and The Beach Boys, I slowly but surely got won over by the Mop Tops.

Let me be clear: neither I nor 'Angels & Demons' are anti-Catholic.

Instead of candidates hiring people, like yours truly, to create campaign media that works on both conscious and subconscious levels to sway the voting public, what if all TV ads were, by law, only allowed to feature the candidate, with, say, the American flag as the backdrop, alone, speaking directly to the camera?

Being a president is an impossible job - it's naive to think someone can do the job and not bend the law here and there.

When you read about it, you realize that mental illness is so prevalent. People didn't always have the right terms for it, but most families have had a brush with it.

I really feel like you shouldn't make a movie as a kind of exercise. You have to be all the way in.

My obligation is to the movie audiences.

What I love about DVD is that the quality is good.

My folks met at the University of Oklahoma, in the theater department in the 1940s. They were married touring the country in 'Cinderella' and 'Snow White.' My mother was married in Cinderella's costume; the dwarves were the best men.

From when I was a young boy, I wanted to be the first person to direct a movie at 100.

I can't say that I am a DVD junkie. I see most films that I want to see in the theater, and so most of my DVD-watching is catching up with the occasional movies that I missed or revisiting a film that I really care about, in which case I really want the extra channels, because it's a movie that I already love, and I want to know more about it.

I have a grandson who's both really interested in art and all things mechanical, so I think he'll get a huge kick out of 'Apollo 13' someday. And I think my granddaughters will enjoy 'Splash.'

I've been around the 'Star Wars' universe from the beginning.

I have the career that I want.

I would do a documentary about Jay-Z. Yes, I would.

I believe in the imperative to explore, so any project that I can be involved with that celebrates that, and expands people's imagination around that idea of pushing out, is one of the most positive things that I think I could be involved with.

A scene, a day of shooting, can often make you feel kind of stupid and inept because your one job is to anticipate and react and know what to go for.

In the research I did for 'Apollo,' there was never a moment's hesitation by anyone that we would do anything other than save these guys, until every resource, every ounce of energy was spent. And I'm very proud of that aspect of our culture.

I'd say that 'In the Heart of the Sea' is the most challenging movie I've made. It was tough to figure out how to lead this large cast into some very sensitive, intense, emotional scenes.

I don't want to only make the movies that studios will greenlight.

Imagine if the people who have lived and learned still had the vitality to act upon the hard learned lessons - and not just share in a conversation, but lead.

I like to make all kinds of shows and films, whether it's fantasy or big-popcorn, big-screen escapism or dramas based on real events.

I'm lucky in a lot of ways. And in my family life, my home life, is where I count myself the luckiest.

I think there's a tendency with actor/directors to imagine themselves playing every part and trying to get people to follow their rhythm, their tempo, their pace. I've learned now to just love being at the center of this creative swirl.

I was never a comic book guy. I like the movies when I see them, especially the origin stories. I never felt like I could be on the set, at 3 o'clock in the morning, tired, with 10 important decisions to make, and know, intuitively, what the story needs. For me, I'd be copycatting and not inventing. I've never said yes to one.

Whatever your political leaning, vote. This participation is vital. I feel the same way about issues like the space program, education, the military. The more the public focuses on these things, thinks and forms opinions, I think the better we are as a democracy.

My brother's a blast to direct; he's one of those great characters who brings so much to every scene he's in, and we're pals.

When I realized that my big dream was going to come true - 'Night Shift' was a success, 'Splash' was a success, I got the job to do 'Cocoon' - suddenly, I was underway. And I knew my name was rising up the lists. I was going to have a career. I was going to be able to direct movies until I screwed it up.

A long time ago, I stopped trying to look at projects as genre exercises.

I don't look ahead to the future as a vast, endless one. I've begun to feel the calendar pages turning.

3-D is a truly exciting possibility. Whether that's going to be something that sustains our interest, I'm not certain, but I think it will.

I want to work. I'd be unsatisfied if I couldn't be pursuing this. But I love my family more. This is really life.

One of the big surprises for me about Einstein was... that he wasn't this big introvert; he was more like a novelist or a painter. It's amazing how close society came to not benefiting from Albert Einstein's genius.

I don't think there is a single character in 'The Graduate' that is not a phony, to one degree or another, except Benjamin and Elaine, and only in the scenes when they are alone together.

Nobody can compare themselves to what The Beatles went through. It was wild.

When I occasionally indulge in sort of a 'look back' at highlights, it's so interesting - it almost never comes from an image on a set or even the Academy Awards. It's almost always a family trip or meeting and falling in love with Cheryl.

The story of John Nash is an amazing, powerful journey. But as unique as this man is, his story is also very accessible because it is so heartbreakingly human.

Entertainment that is fact-based is, I think, where people really learn the most, because they're leaning in, their curiosity is stimulated and they're being entertained.

I think the most important thing really was that you could take very personal ideas and present them to an audience in entertaining ways.

I've just looked for ideas and great characters that I relate to and that I think I can offer something to the audience, and I no longer look at them as experiments or genre exercises at all.

You're always a little surprised when something really takes off.

I think it's in our nature to try to get beyond that next horizon. I think that when we as a species are scratching that itch we're actually following an evolutionary compulsion that is wired into us. I think good things come of it. That's the philosophical side.

One of the great things about being a director as a life choice is that it can never be mastered. Every story is its own kind of expedition, with its own set of challenges.

Death can be experienced once, winning maybe more, but losing can happen all the time.

Confidence is preparation in action.

Humor is unavoidable. It might not feel funny in the moment, but more often than not there's a light at the end of the tunnel.