Why fight technology at all? The audience is always going to tell you what they like best. And you, as a storyteller, as a communicator, are going to be required to adjust to that. – Ron Howard
Everything’s always about page-turning, right? What’s next? So, if you create questions for audiences, then they’ll want to know the answer. Or they begin to formulate possible outcomes. That’s the game we play when we’re hearing a story unfold. That’s part of what sucks us into a movie. – Ron Howard
I have very close friends who are very devout Catholics, and I talked to them before the ‘Da Vinci Code,’ and it was very difficult for them, but I talked to them before ‘Angels and Demons,’ and they said the scandal, abuse of power and violence was part of church history, which you can read about in the Vatican bookstore. – Ron Howard
You can’t expect perfection. It is important to sort of acknowledge some of our imperfections. I write them down. There’s something about acknowledging mistakes and being able to put them down on paper; they become facts of your life that you must live with. And then, hopefully, you can navigate the road a little bit better. – Ron Howard
I’ve acted with all types, I’ve directed all types. What you want to understand, as a director, is what actors have to offer. They’ll get at it however they get at it. If you can understand that, you can get your work done. – Ron Howard
If you think about it, for almost any moment, any mood that you might be in, there’s probably a Beatles song that will address that mood, that feeling, that set of emotions. I don’t know that that can be said about very many groups, if any. – Ron Howard
When you’re an actor, you often feel victimized – you see the end result, ‘Oh, they didn’t use this take; they didn’t use that take. How come?’ There’s no ‘How come?’ with the director. There’s only one person to look at. Walk over to the mirror if you want to know why. But I prefer that. – Ron Howard
I was very intimidated by the visual effects world. But I began to realize that you don’t have to know everything. You have to be able to talk about story. – Ron Howard
I never wanted to be a brand director. I didn’t want that kind of stamp. I wanted to be more like Pacino or Dustin Hoffman or Meryl Streep or De Niro – you know, a chameleon as a storyteller – because I love all kinds of movies. – Ron Howard
Richard Dreyfuss, when we were doing ‘American Graffiti,’ was pumping me to vote for McGovern. But I think I wound up going for Nixon. I thought he could get us out of the Vietnam War quickly. Ha. – Ron Howard
Anything that stimulates the public’s imagination about the nobility and the importance of space exploration is something that I’m very excited to be a part of. – Ron Howard
I love leaving the door open to good ideas. I love the collaborative swirl. I get charged by problem-solving, usually under some kind of stress – the sun is going down, and we have eight minutes, and we have to solve it. Great things come out of it. – Ron Howard
For my 10th birthday, what I wanted was Beatle boots and a Beatle wig. My parents couldn’t find Beatle boots, but down at the dime store, Woolworths or someplace, they found a Beatle wig! – Ron Howard
There are all these great TV series; you can watch all these hours and hours of shows and ideas, but there’s still something great about a movie that unfolds in a couple of hours, and you have the complete experience. – Ron Howard
Early in the second season of ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’ I ventured a suggestion for a line change to make it sound more ‘like the way a kid would say it.’ I was just 7 years old. But my idea was accepted, and I remember standing frozen, thrilled at what this moment represented to me. – Ron Howard
Anytime you really take a close look at people who are dealing with the aging process, you’re going to have a complicated reaction to what you’re seeing and feeling. If you’re in the middle of it, those emotions are going to be quadrupled. It’s immediate, it’s relatable, so it’s good human drama. – Ron Howard
With ‘Apollo 13,’ I wasn’t sure the genre would work, because space films hadn’t done that well. – Ron Howard
I’ve worked with Bette Davis, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda. Here’s the thing they all have in common: They all, even in their 70s, worked a little harder than everyone else. – Ron Howard