James L. Brooks

James Lawrence Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is a three-time Academy Award, nineteen-time Emmy and Golden Globe-winning producer, writer, and director for film and television.

Quotes

 * I had a screenplay once where I was 90 pages in and I knew it was all over. I knew it was a disaster.  And it was driving me crazy because the studio had gone down a path with me, so there was no getting out and I didn’t know how to go past these 90 pages.  And then it all worked out&mdash;and the change which made it from absolute despair that there was no way to save it to it all working out was minute.  But, but key.  INTERVIEWER:  Which screenplay was that?  JAMES L. BROOKS: Uh, it was Terms of Endearment.
 * In the documentary Dreams on Spec


 * There was a great director who directed a picture that I wrote who barred me from the set&mdash;quite appropriately&mdash;and said, “I’m sorry, Jim. When you’re directing, you don’t need to know everything.  You need the illusion that you do.”  And, you know, and I WOULD be there&mdash;behind him trying to signal the actors in, you know, in a way I wasn’t even aware of.
 * In the documentary Dreams on Spec