My grandparents, they came through Ellis Island in 1923, and you know, I'd heard all the stories. — James Gray Copy Share Image
The state of being in love is so inherently preposterous. It usually lends itself to romantic comedy. I think we've all been… — James Gray Copy Share Image
All I can say is sometimes home gets burned into your occipital lobe, and it can't leave you, and there's always that… — James Gray Copy Share Image
Melodrama and melodramatic are not the same thing, and often people make the mistake of confusing the two. — James Gray Copy Share Image
At Ellis Island, I mean, you didn't go there if you arrived in first class. It was only the poorest, the people… — James Gray Copy Share Image
At a certain point, you have to kind of realize that greatness is a messy thing. — James Gray Copy Share Image
The audience cares what the movie looks like, not about the sleepless night you had worrying about the thing getting developed. — James Gray Audience Copy Share Image
The key to humor is often self-loathing or sarcasm. In a sense, that's how self-loathing is made palatable. — James Gray Comedy Copy Share Image
I feel that The American Dream is this fallacy that you come to the United States and win lotto. That's a disservice… — James Gray America Copy Share Image
The films I grew up loving, and the art that I love, is not generally the kind of postmodern ironic winking stuff.… — James Gray Art Copy Share Image
I have three young children, and I kind of stopped going to movies in 2006. I go to see some, but I'm… — James Gray Copy Share Image
Film is better than digital in every way. It has better contrast ratio, better blacks, and better color reproduction. It's a more… — James Gray Copy Share Image
I have no interest whatsoever in pursuing acting or becoming a mogul. I love writing and directing; I see those two jobs… — James Gray Acting Copy Share Image
Melodrama is one of the most stunning art forms. These are stories where the emotions are big, and the situations are big,… — James Gray Art Copy Share Image
I suppose I'm always trying to break down the wall between my characters and myself. I'm trying to make the film as… — James Gray Copy Share Image
The system is not really particularly amenable to filmmakers who write and direct their own work. It's much more about the studio… — James Gray Copy Share Image
I would love it if my films made a lot of money, and may I say that 'The Yards' is the only… — James Gray Cinema Copy Share Image
I think storytelling is a thing of beauty, and also very difficult. It's a craft you have to continue to work at. — James Gray Copy Share Image
The life of a film is very strange. Once the film is done, you wish you could forget about it and move… — James Gray Copy Share Image
There are very few movies in English about romantic obsession told with a seriousness of purpose. — James Gray Copy Share Image
The idea that the family is this locus of support but can also hold you back and keep you down makes for… — James Gray Copy Share Image
There's never really been a tradition of making films about Jewish themes or using Judaism as a constant. — James Gray Copy Share Image
The closer you can get to being personal, the better the work is, or the more interesting the work is. — James Gray Being Copy Share Image
I feel like it's a real shame that my generation doesn't make an appearance at the opera. — James Gray Copy Share Image
Actors want to work with you but they want you to do their thing. Actors, whom I love with a blind partiality,… — James Gray Actors Copy Share Image
I think to be a movie critic is troubling from one major respect. If you are forced to watch ten movies a… — James Gray Copy Share Image
If everybody lives in the same way, there's something almost narcotizing about it, but the true misery of economic class difference is… — James Gray Copy Share Image
I continually marvel at people who can make films that reach five hundred million people. How do you do that? Everybody's different… — James Gray Cinema Copy Share Image
I think I'm a very American director, but I probably should have been making movies somewhere around 1976. I never left the… — James Gray Copy Share Image
I remember as a little kid, I would always feel comfortable if the light in the crack of my parents' door was… — James Gray Copy Share Image
If everybody loves you, you must be doing something wrong. It means there's no button being pushed... The only way that everybody… — James Gray Being Copy Share Image
To the extent that independent means you're willing to attempt to put your own ideas, personality, and commitment to the material on… — James Gray Copy Share Image
'Apocalypse Now' poses questions without any attempt to provide definitive answers, and the film's profound ambiguities are integral to its enduring magic. — James Gray Ambiguities Copy Share Image
I've been a Yankees fan for a long time. When I was a kid in the mid-'70s, the Yankees were really great.… — James Gray Copy Share Image
I went to see 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' and J.J. Abrams, who's a friend of mine, made this film, and I went… — James Gray Copy Share Image
I know this sounds phony, but I don't start out on a project going, 'I'm going to make an emotional work,' you… — James Gray Copy Share Image
What I do have to get across is the truth of the moment within the given scene. It's my job, as a… — James Gray Copy Share Image
It's the demand of all demands to do a car chase that's unique because there are so many... really since the beginning… — James Gray Copy Share Image
The actor always must be in the scene, not above the scene. To communicate any larger ideas is my problem; it's how… — James Gray Copy Share Image
The decision about digital or film is going to be made for us. I think the answer is that film is gonna… — James Gray Copy Share Image
