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
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
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
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
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
'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
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
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
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
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 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 sad truth for American actors is that they really have no control whatsoever over the material that they get, or can… — James Gray Actor 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
It's much easier to make a movie with kind of stylistic pyrotechnics because you can hide behind that if there's a gap… — James Gray Copy Share Image
I think true economic class unhappiness comes from when across the street someone has a new Cadillac and you can't get that. — James Gray Copy Share Image
I'm telling you, every film I've ever made has been hated by the U.K. critics. — 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
My grandparents, they came through Ellis Island in 1923, and you know, I'd heard all the stories. — James Gray Copy Share Image
What a director really does is set the emotional temperature and the mood and the level, amount, or lack of, distance between… — James Gray Action Copy Share Image
Anyone who starts badmouthing Latino immigrants is not only a racist but ignorant. You need to refer them to what was written… — James Gray Copy Share Image
The key to acting - from what little I know about that wonderful craft - is listening, and interacting with the other… — James Gray 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 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
I am an Ashkenazi Jew, and there are a whole host of genetic disorders that only Ashkenazi Jews have. I don't know… — James Gray Copy Share Image
The word 'operatic' is often misused to mean over the top, where someone is over-emoting. And that does a terrible disservice because… — James Gray Copy Share Image
I don't think my parents told me enough how the world doesn't really care about me. I think it's important to tell… — James Gray Copy Share Image
My wife and I had been to the genetic counselor; my wife is not Jewish - she's the shiksha goddess type -… — James Gray Copy Share Image
Unfortunately for critics and audiences alike, I have made several films, and some films with really terrific actors. And I say this… — James Gray Actor Copy Share Image
If you read about the astronauts who went to the moon - the 12 who walked on it, and the others who… — James Gray Copy Share Image
The ending shot of 'Queen Christina' with Greta Garbo is amazing. She's at the head of the ship, and she's been through… — James Gray Amazing Copy Share Image
Really, what I'm doing is an attempt to continue the best work of the people I adore: Francis Coppola and Scorsese and… — James Gray Copy Share Image
Actors do want to work with me and I'm very grateful for that, but you never know. I could write parts for… — James Gray Actor Copy Share Image
The conventional wisdom is that people come to the United States, and immigration is so great, and they say, 'America, what a… — James Gray America Copy Share Image
I grew up in a semi-attached row house in Queens in New York. And my family and my grandparents and my father's… — James Gray Brooklyn Copy Share Image
