Spike Jonze

Movies, they take years of my life, so I'm fortunate that I get to work in a lot of different mediums.

If you compromise what you're trying to do just a little bit, you'll end up compromising a little more the next day or the next week, and when you lift your head you're suddenly really far away from where you're trying to go.

Whenever I start writing, I try to put together songs that feed the feeling of the movie.

I want to make films without a single clear message, and films that are as close as possible to what it feels like to be alive. At least to me.

I think if something's emotionally real - and I'm not even talking about in movies or in art, but in life - you can't really argue with that, even if your intellectual mind might know differently.

When I'm making stuff, the thing that excites me most is not the result, but the process and trying to do something I've never done before.

I think at the beginning of a project, you decide if you're in love with the idea and what it's about, or what you think it's about at that time at least. Then you commit to it, and once you've commit to it no matter what, no matter how many self doubts you have, you're in it. The ship's sailed, you can't turn around.

If you focus your energy on the camera, it takes away from the time you have to focus on the performances.

Even in this world where you’re getting everything you need and having this nice life, there’s still loneliness and longing and disconnection.

You make a movie that is about what you want it to be about and let people have their reaction to it.

I like people that define their own values. I am much more interested in somebody who has their own definition of what they value, their own definition of what success is, their own definition of what love is.

Be willing to get fired for a good idea.

I feel like you only have so much time to make stuff. I'm definitely aware of that. I'm also excited about it.

I think the way kids create is so inspiring. They're drawing a picture? They love the picture they drew; they're not tortured about it.

I respect people that are die-hard film people, but I started on video. I started on Hi8 video and mini-DV, and I made skate videos. So, I love film, and I love the way it looks, but I also love the way crappy video looks, or VHS. I've always been a fan of whatever the look is that's appropriate for what the feeling is.

Maurice Sendak never - I remember he said something that was very striking because it's something I never thought about. I always loved his work, and he said, 'I don't really view myself as a children's book author. I just try and write about childhood as honestly as I can.'

I don't know what life was like 1,000 years ago, but I imagine there was the same struggle: people trying to connect with each other.

I always aspire to that, where it feels like the film was made by the characters as opposed to the filmmakers. I try to be invisible.