Judd Apatow > Quotes

“If I’ve learned anything—anything—getting older, it’s the value of moment-to-moment enjoyment.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Life is ridiculous, so why not be a good guy?” That may be the only religion I have to this day.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“you have to have a dream before you can execute it. That the people who succeed are the ones who think through what the next stages of their careers might be, and then work incredibly hard, day after day, to attain their goals. They don’t just flop around like fish. They have a vision, and they work their asses off to make it a reality.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Jerry: If you always want less, in words as well as things, you’ll do well as a writer.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Mel, if you’re going to go up to the bell, ring it.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Judd: I like to be here until people really want to leave. But that’s kind of how I am as a person. That’s why my movies are too long. That’s why I eat too much.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“They say certain people aren’t good soldiers because if they’re in a foxhole all night—you know, if you’re creative and smart, you’re thinking about all the different ways someone is going to blow your head off. But if you’re not that smart, you’re just like chilling out. And I feel like that in life. I’m just in the foxhole all fucking day thinking about everything that’s going to go wrong in every possible way.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“There’s very little work where the work and the reward are simultaneous, and comedy is that.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Harold: Serenity is an illusion, but if anything is possible and I can do anything, then there’s a limitless capacity to do good.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“If life only has the meaning you bring to it, we have the opportunity to bring rich meaning to our lives by the service we do for others. It’s a positive thing.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Amy: I still think that all the time. It’s not that I feel like what I’m doing is so amazing, but it’s pretty good compared to what other people are doing.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Sarah: I can be cynical. But I don’t think of myself, at my core, as cynical. So much of it is location. Like, who is Muslim? Who is a Jew? Who is a Catholic? Who is a Christian? Who’s Buddhist? Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of it is where you happen to be born. So how can one be right and another be wrong? It seems pretty clear to me that it’s a coping mechanism for people who cannot handle the not knowing of things. I am okay knowing I will never be able to comprehend the world.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Marc: I’ll tell you something Harry Shearer said to me, and I want to get your opinion on it. He said the reason why people are comedians is to have control over why people laugh at you. Judd: I look at it this way: When someone is laughing, I know they don’t dislike me. I don’t know if they like me, but I know that in that moment they don’t dislike me. And that’s why I get the need for constant approval, because if you’re smiling I know you don’t hate me.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Marc: Why are we so afraid of joy? Judd: That’s the question. And I’ve thought about it a lot, and I think it’s because we think right behind joy is a knife that will cut our throat if we really feel it. It’s almost like a laugh—your chin goes up and your throat is exposed. If I laugh too loud, someone will slit my throat. That’s the terror of joy.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Don't be a jerk. Try to love everyone. Give more than you take. And do it despite the fact that you only really like about 7 out of five hundred people".”
― Judd Apatow

“I’m trying to fuck my kids up just enough so they’ll want to get a job.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“No one really knows anything about comedy. We know a little bit about what we’re doing, but as far as the industry—the exec branch—they don’t know how it happens.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“As Nora Ephron said once: “Well, I feel terrible about the metaphor, but what can I do? It’s like the whale, you know?” And”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“That’s the greatest thing about comedy. If you’ve got talent, it’s unmistakable. No one misses it and you don’t have to wait around for a break. It’s very easy to get a break. It’s very hard to be good enough.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Sometimes I actually have a phobia of feeling good.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“I'm sure my brain is all screwed up because it's always trying to think about how to look at something in a funny way.”
― Judd Apatow

“There’s that moment early in your career when you will work harder than any other point afterward.”
― Judd Apatow

“You could get everybody to have common cause, and do it in a way that maintained a certain humanity.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“Judd: You like being scared? Louis: I remember when I was a kid, Billie Jean King was doing that Battle of the Sexes thing—I don’t remember if it was happening when I was a kid or if I saw a show about it. But I was so impressed with her. She reminded me of my mom and I just thought she was the coolest person and I hated Bobby Riggs because my mom was a single, working mother. They toured together and did these interviews together, and he was always going, like, women should just go back, put on a tight shirt, and make me a steak. He said this amazing shit and she’s just sitting there with a smile on her face. And they turned to her and they say, “How do you feel about all this?” And she says, “Well, all this does is put pressure on me. Everything he says just means that I have to beat him.” She gets this big smile on her face and says, “I love pressure.” Judd: Wow. Louis: And I never forgot it. I was like, fuck that. That was such an interesting notion—that pressure, give me, give me, give me, because all that’s going to do is make me better. Like, eating pressure. Having it be fuel. I like that.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“a weird movie.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“The only true stereotype about Black women is how Black women will say, “Well, no one’s doing it, so I guess I’ll do it.” Once you put that lady in your office, no matter what your office is, if you treat her right, she is going to do your job and her job. And I think people are slowly realizing that.”
― Judd Apatow, Sicker in the Head: More Conversations About Life and Comedy

“know meditation is healthy. Everybody says it slows your heart rate and everything, and the basis of religion seems to be that when you pray…I don’t know what people who are religious think when they pray, but it’s very close to what meditation is. It’s sort of ritualistic, it’s habit, it’s like exercising, so you might be able to get something out of that. I’m sure some people enjoy thinking it’s out of their hands. There’s all these people who think it’s “meant to be.” But I don’t buy that.”
― Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy

“For a while, my daughter would give me a hard time because she wasn’t allowed to see my movies because they’re all R-rated. It’s hard to delay kids to fifteen, sixteen years old, especially when they have the movie on every gadget in the house. But I finally opened up the door. It was this big deal. I was like, “Okay, you can watch them now”—and then she had no interest in watching them. So now, anytime she watches a movie that’s not one of mine it’s an insult to me. “Why are you watching Schindler’s List? You haven’t seen Funny People! When are you going to watch it?” She’s like, “I don’t know, Dad.”
― Judd Apatow

“The thing that ruined your life makes you good at your work. And then you get rewarded at work, so you don’t bother to fix it in your life.”
― Judd Apatow

“And since leaving, what has been the best part of not working that busy schedule? David: It used to be really fatiguing, the fact of doing it every day. Now when I do something, I think, Wow, this would be great if I could do something like this once a month. You still get the little jolt, and the hope of self-esteem, but you’re not in the makeup chair every day”
― Judd Apatow, Sicker in the Head: More Conversations About Life and Comedy