Rian Johnson quotes

Rian Johnson is an American writer, director, and producer known for his inventive storytelling and genre-blending films. His works include acclaimed movies such as "Looper," "Knives Out," and entries in the "Star Wars" franchise. He frequently brings fresh perspectives to popular genres and is praised for his unique cinematic style. Here are 23 of his quotes:

I mean, the first "Back to the Future” is kind of a perfect script, I think. In terms of handling time travel the best, it depends on your definition. To me, that means it effectively uses it in the story.

Rian Johnson

The critical reaction to 'Bloom' has been similar to 'Brick.' There are people on board with it and people who are not.

Rian Johnson

Teen movies often have an unspoken underlying premise in which high school is seen as less serious than the adult world. But when your head is encased in that microcosm it's the most serious time of your life.

Rian Johnson

Having been a "Star Wars" fan my whole life, and having spent most of my life on the other side of the curb and in that fandom, it softens the blow a little bit. I'm aware through my own experience that, first of all, the fans are so passionate, they care so deeply - sometimes they care very violently at me on Twitter. But it's because they care about these things, and it hurts when you're expecting something specific and you don't get it from something that you love. It always hurts, so I don't take it personally if a fan reacts negatively and lashes out on me on Twitter. That's fine. It's my job to be there for that.

Rian Johnson

With 'Brick' there was the Dashiell Hammett influence, and with 'Brothers Bloom' there was a really strong Fellini influence - both those movies wore that on their sleeve.

Rian Johnson

In almost the same way you know what your grandmother looks and sounds like, you know what Bruce Willis looks and sounds like.

Rian Johnson

Belgrade has kind of a Dublinesque, dear-dirty charm.

Rian Johnson

My favorite sci-fi always uses its hook to amplify some bigger theme or idea - some emotional thrust.

Rian Johnson

I do love science fiction, but it's not really a genre unto itself; it always seems to merge with another genre. With the few movies I've done, I've ended up playing with genre in some way or another, so any genre that's made to mix with others is like candy to me. It allows you to use big, mythic situations to talk about ordinary things.

Rian Johnson

Even if I had $200 million, I'm very wary of overusing CGI. I think it's a great tool and it can be used really effectively, but I feel like it does tend to be overused and especially in sci-fi stuff.

Rian Johnson

Well, you know, we all grew up as 'Star Wars' fans.

Rian Johnson

All my favorite movies are somebody else's least favorite movie.

Rian Johnson

You go from these high hopes when you're writing to just a desperate want of not making a complete fool of yourself by the end of it.

Rian Johnson

I feel like people want to be surprised when they get out of the movies. They want something thrown at them they didn't expect. They want stuff that reminds them of the feelings that you get when you're watching art house movies but with the fun of like a big summer movie. That's the goal, I guess.

Rian Johnson

You never want to make a "message movie," but you always want to be talking about something that you care about.

Rian Johnson

I just don't think CGI is up to manipulating the human face yet. I feel like you can get away with it with aliens or monsters or something that's intentionally foreign, but I have yet to see anything digital to do with the human face that doesn't just look ridiculous.

Rian Johnson

Hopefully with each thing that you do you're learning something, you're growing, and you're pushing yourself a little harder in some way or another. So I think you'd be in real trouble if each new thing that you create didn't feel like 'Oh, wow. I feel like I'm doing something a little different this time.

Rian Johnson

Game of Thrones' is just incredible, what they pull off every week.

Rian Johnson

I bristle a little when the argument for film gets put into the nostalgia ghetto. Film is still the highest quality and best-looking image capture medium available. I don't think it always will be. The digital image will get better, and it will eventually surpass the quality of the film image, but it isn't there yet.

Rian Johnson

Unlike some of the time-travel movies I love, like 'Primer' or '12 Monkeys,' 'Looper' is not about time travel. It's about this situation that time travel creates and the people dealing with that situation. So narratively, the big challenge was to have time travel get out of the way.

Rian Johnson