J. Lynn Quotes

If I don't have to think about the commercial aspect of it, then I feel like I'm going to make better films.

I'd always wanted to work in television once I found out that they started to hire independent filmmakers to direct.

I hope to keep working with television. I wouldn't mind doing more.

I can connect with whoever I want to connect with in the world. And I can also write my own script. I don't have to follow rules. I can sort of just be unconventional.

There's so much great TV and I always thought it would be such a fun little sideway to make money and then not have to worry about my films making a lot of money.

I feel like this is the way I was meant to interact with acting. Which is as a director, and helping, working with actors to find their way. Facilitating their performances is so satisfying for me.

I had a background in theater as an actor, and then a photographer, and then as an experimental filmmaker and editor.

It feels to me like everyone is going to do their best work when they feel emotionally safe.

All we really want in life is to connect to other human beings, and when you desperately want to connect physically to one specific human being and you can't? That's something I find compelling.

People think they're getting objective information, but they're not. They're getting news wrapped up in opinion.

It's so exciting to be doing radio on the cutting edge of technology. Being in on something new is the biggest thrill in the world.

I'm a Yente and I have a terrible accent.

I think there's nothing sadder than a pro athlete who plays past his prime.

I avoid my neighbors - luckily, my building has two exits.

I think if you are a black person or an Hispanic person, you are not as fond of Rudolph Giuliani as you are if you happen to be a white person. Because he has trampled on people's civil rights.

Beauty is not in outer perfection but rather in the amount of light we allow to shine through the very thing obscuring our souls.

It eats you up. It eats you up. And you have to - I had a lot of help. I had a lot of therapy. And I was able to - because it was hard, you know, to - you can't just lay it on friends and children.

I believe I have lots of time. I have to believe that, that it won't come back, and that that's why I'm in good hands. But I also do live my life by putting nothing off.

So I - the thought that I would physically be different was - it's not a thrill, I have to tell you. It's kind of - it brings you up short. But I was able to look at it right away.

But when this happens to you - and I think other people would identify with this - suddenly, colors are brighter. You see everything.

I don't want marriage. You know why? Because I did that. I did it for 32 years.

I don't want to marry again. I did that.

Change is often rejuvenating, invigoration, fun ... and necessary.

I don't know but maybe it's fair to say that some of the responsibility lies with the American people and not just on the leaders.

If you go in with a plan to make a point, and you know what your narrative is going to be already, in our mind, it's probably not worth telling.

When the play is still evolving I try to be at rehearsal as often as possible, and part of that casting process. You find new things when the language is living in different people's mouths.

Why does everybody agree that atmospheric oxygen comes from life, but no one speaks about the other gases coming from life?

She looked at him gravely. "You cannot call back the river that has already flowed past you, Ruith. All you can do is be grateful for where you are in it.

He can occasionally see to an enemy," she conceded. "If he manages to get his sword pointed in the right direction and the enemy does him the favor of falling upon it in precisely the right way.

I am a connoisseur of fine irony. 'Tis a bit like fine wine, but it has a better bite.

Say me aye," he whispered against her mouth. "Say me aye." How could she say anything else?

The worst program in the world, if you believe in it 100%, is better than a great program that you don't believe in.

My mother was a very literate person who had educated herself. She had an exceptional vocabulary.

But I married a guy who treated me very badly, but I was happy. I was miserable, so I was happy.

I'm one of those writers who, when writing, believes she's god-and that she hasn't bestowed free will on any of her characters. In that sense there are no surprises in any of my books.

When all those city folks try to fix up my talking, all they do is mess me up.

A lot of people say I'd miss show business if I quit. I'd miss some of it. Now it's the only life I know.

You're the reason our kids are ugly.

How do you measure your value?

I came out the back of the building and I was hollering, 'I've sung on the Grand Ole Opry! I've sung on the Grand Ole Opry!'

I never knew where babies came from until it happened to me.

It's possible to become so comfortable with one's style and structure that one ceases to grow.

Im always trolling for trivia.

Once you've invested hundreds of hours in creating a coherent universe, your story's grown to around a half-million words and can't be written as anything less than a trilogy.

Neophyte writers tend to believe that there is something magical about ideas and that if they can just get a hold of a good one, then their futures are ensured.

If you write, one of the questions you're always trying to answer is, Where do you get your ideas? And, if you write, you know how pointless a question this is and how difficult it is to answer.

It took me about 12 years to reach my million-word mark. The challenge now is to continue to challenge myself.

The money can be decent, but I really don't recommend the work-for-hire route as an entry into publishing. Too many things can go wrong.

I write sets of books, but I've also written a lot of orphans.

Doolittle looked just like a little toy soldier the first time I ever saw him.