J.J. Abrams Quotes

Quotes by and about J.J. Abrams

(Continued from his main entry on the site.)

Abrams: "I love the idea of anthropomorphizing machines. I love the idea of taking technology and giving it a personality."

Abrams: "My favorite things have nearly always been extreme and fantastical, involving some kind of visual effects, but also very emotionally driven."

Abrams: "[My greatest strength as a writer is that] I'm a fast writer. [My greatest weakness as a writer is that] I write too quickly."

The Telegraph: "His interests are ... strangely antiquated."

Abrams: "I'm drawn to typewriters and printing and papercraft, and the idea of actual bookbinding and box-making. I do think there's something about the digital age that is increasingly dehumanizing us. We're in this very weird place where we're being pulled into experiences that aren't really experiences at all. When you're printing something on a Chandler & Price letterpress, even though it might take a long time and it's imperfect, isn't that the point?'"

Abrams: "I have a mystery box from Tannen's Magic in New York. It's a cardboard box with a question mark printed on it. It's one of those things you buy for $15 and they advertise that it has at least $20 worth of stuff inside. I've never opened it. I love the fact that it has this mysterious value as long as I don't open it."

Abrams: "[Self-analysis] feels too mannered or too self-aware. I would hate to be logical about why I'm approaching a project."

Abrams: "I could not have less of a plan. I've just ... [worked] on things that I felt would be cool to see. It's not that I had a strategy or anything."

Abrams: "I never think about stuff from the outside in ... so I have no idea what the hell I do."

Washington Post: "He appears younger [than his age]. Energetic and fast-talking, he could easily be carded at a bar."

Chris Pine: "He still seems like this little kid playing make-believe with a camera."

Sheila Roberts: "[He seems] to have a certain kind of creative restlessness. [He is] always moving from one idea to the next or from one kind of storytelling to another."

Damon Lindelof: "Working on the Lost pilot five years ago, he was a hurricane. ... He was in the midst of several different movie projects, writing two other pilots, and still running Alias."

Damon Lindelof: "He has to have six or seven things going on to activate him. It energizes him creatively."

Jill Greenberg: "For some people Star Trek is everything. Nothing is ever everything for Abrams, who ... [has] an 'inability to single-mindedly focus,' and who suffers from an 'overactive imagination.'"

USA Today: "Abrams comes off as younger than his years."

Ving Rhames: "He reminds me almost of a young Quentin Tarantino. ... They both have a youthful energy for film."

Oscar Isaac: "[He] is able to infuse everyone, no matter who they are, with excitement."

Benedict Cumberbatch: "He still has the fervor of a ten-year-old child when it comes to the enjoyment of what we do."

Benedict Cumberbatch: "J.J. is extremely talented. He's a polymath and a genius and I don't use those words very often. He's very funny, extremely warm and exceptionally talented. He's like a ten-year-old boy, with infectious enthusiasms."

Chris Pine: "J.J. [can be] fucking around on GarageBand with original Beatles recordings, remixing them himself while directing a scene and live-chatting with Trek fans on his laptop. It's kind of infuriating how much he has going on. You look at yourself and think, 'What the fuck am I doing?'"

John Cho: "He could honestly do any job on a film set [including] costumes, makeup, [and] special effects."

Scott Chambliss: "J.J. is the genius kid who has a great personality too so you can't hate him."