'Whiplash' scared me. I feel you should only do projects that scare you to some degree. I get motivated by those sorts… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
If you look at 'West Side Story,' a lot of those numbers are actually pretty cutty, but the cuts are always musically… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
It's interesting when you wind up distilling all your ambitions and your goals and dreams into one single person. It's giving that… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
As a drummer, you're always fighting for a level that you never quite attain. — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
What's great about musicals is their energy and go-for-brokeness - stopping the story to sing and dance. How can you not love… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
Real practice means working on stuff you're not good at. Real practice is about butting your head against the wall repeatedly until… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
At the upper echelon of musicians in general, I guess performers in general, you have to have this kind of live-or-die, cutthroat… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
I didn't feel the kind of joy every day playing drums that I thought you were supposed to feel. — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
I was in high school, and when you get to be 14, 15, you start to feel a little more like your… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
Going back to my film education, I always have that voice in my head that's always screaming, 'Sell out!' And that's good:… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
It's a weird thing where, especially in jazz, you have to totally mention cutting sessions and people one-upping each other and people… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
There's something very particular about the kind of rage you feel when you're alone in a practice room by yourself, unable to… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
I was in this public high school in Princeton, and it had this topnotch jazz program - if you were a musician… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
People like Art Blakey and Buddy Rich, you look at them playing music, and it's just like looking at a heavy metal… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
It's a little difficult when something goes from being an utter obsession - a thing where your skill defines you as a… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
When you're trying to paint a portrait of a very specific world, you're trying to show what makes the world different. So,… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
If you're on the varsity team, the responsibilities are a lot bigger and there's more stress, but you also walk around feeling… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
I hadn't seen that many movies that really go deep enough into the fears of playing music or the language that musicians… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
If you're an artist, you want to draw from real life; you want to draw from experiences, emotion, and it's something that… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
It's easy to show terrible people's behavior on screen, and we all just kind of nod and go, 'Isn't that terrible.' It's… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
I would break a lot of cymbals. You whack the cymbals hard enough, and they will crack in half. Drums are not… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
If you want to make a movie, there may be many forces trying to pull you down, but really, a lot of… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
Nothing is guaranteed to last, so you should just enjoy it as it happens. — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
I wanted to look at the mentality that can breed that sort of intensity, that kind of cutthroat, pressure-cooker feeling, especially a… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
My motivation for being a good drummer was born out of fear, which, in a way, seems so antithetical to what art should be. — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
It's interesting when you wind up distilling all your ambitions and your goals and dreams into one single person. It's giving that person a… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
In a weird way, I'm always going to ground myself. I'm an insecure kind of pessimist, but I'm always kind of waiting for the… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
Real practice means working on stuff you're not good at. Real practice is about butting your head against the wall repeatedly until you get… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
It's a little difficult when something goes from being an utter obsession - a thing where your skill defines you as a person -… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
It was only through getting interested in more out-there and avant-garde forms that the musical suddenly seemed like such a wonderful genre to me. — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
If you're an artist, you want to draw from real life; you want to draw from experiences, emotion, and it's something that a lot… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
I was interested in music and making movies about musicians, but my own experiences, and doing what it felt like for me to be… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
There are a lot of musicians in my life. But movies came first for me. That was my original passion. — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
By the end of high school, I had this fork-in-the-road moment where part of me considered going to vocational music school to really pursue… — Damien Chazelle Copy Share Image
