Independent films are where you really get to cut your teeth and have some fun and do the things that mainstream Hollywood doesn't want to do.
I found Hollywood pretty bruising and uncreative. The executives are all in thrall to the boss, and spend their times double-guessing him or her, and trying to remember what he/she said and then applying them to the script, whether it was useful or not. They're all in fear for their jobs.
Coming to Hollywood at 19 and living in a single apartment with one other guy on Venice Beach was a massive contrast to my upbringing.
The main trouble with Hollywood is that the guys you have to pitch to, the guys who run the studios, are all business school grads.
I don't realize how rare it is to genuinely have sincere love for everyone you work with. Especially in Hollywood, but even in life.
I think it's even harder because I think as always, Hollywood is sort of glamour central for the world, and the entire world looks to it for not only entertainment, but the whole idea of the youth factor and youth being sold to our culture via young actors and actresses.
Hollywood is still the mecca for good or bad, but it isn't the beginning or end for filmmaking.
I'm a long-time fan of Rob Long, and his books are hugely re-readable, detailing the ins and outs of being a Hollywood comedy writer with a past success but with everything to prove.
I tell people, 'It's just like a cliche, but it's true: In Hollywood, dreams can come true.'
Young people, even in Hollywood, ask me, 'Were you really married to Humphrey Bogart?' 'Well, yes, I think I was,' I reply.
If you go to Hollywood, you've already sold out.
Generally I don't like doing remakes, but I think that's more in the cynical world of Hollywood where normally remakes are purely for commercial reasons.
I bought a house in the Hollywood Hills and brought my grandmother from Harlem to live in it with me.
Hollywood is like Picasso's bathroom.
Hollywood... a city I was to come back to time and again, in sickness and in health, in success and in failure, with anticipation and with dread.
'The Hollywood Reporter' was always in. You always got great tables. You always got great seats at screenings. You always got treated well if you were at the paper.
Every time I've made a plan in my Hollywood acting career, something else has happened, so I've gotten out of the habit of trying to predict the future.
I don't know if a pro wrestling career prepares you for Hollywood. When you get out there, and you're in an arena for 20,000 people or 90,000 people, it's a lot different than being on a quiet set with 100 people, so I think you get used to dealing with cameras.
I can't tell you how hard it is to make a dark-humored movie in Hollywood.
I would rather have gotten married than have a Hollywood contract.
I remember just lying in the grass, staring at the clouds, wondering where they drifted off to after they floated over Texas. I never would have imagined that one day I would follow one of those clouds and find myself in Hollywood.
That's all gone, now, the old, Hollywood.
When you're a large black man in Hollywood, the obvious stereotype is one of force and menace.
Misery loves company. This is a Hollywood soap opera, and I'm not going to be a star in another Bryant soap opera.
Hollywood likes to put actors in boxes, and it likes to put Asian actors in really small boxes.
I think that in Hollywood, it's hard because so many people do turn out crazy. I don't need to go out every night to get attention. I'm happy with the amount that I have.
Out in Hollywood, you get the feeling when people are talking to you, that they are looking right past you - like they're looking to see who else they can talk to.
Behind the phony tinsel of Hollywood lies the real tinsel.
Hollywood is a place where they place you under contract instead of under observation.
I don't consider myself a Hollywood liberal, but I have my convictions and my beliefs.
You can get pigeonholed in Hollywood and people think of you in a certain way.
Last summer a second unit production crew went to France and shot scenes for several of this season's episodes. They shot costumed actors in and around real castles and landmarks, we couldn't possibly have duplicated here in Hollywood.
The problem with most Hollywood movies is they don't give the director enough control.
I think Hollywood is so driven by money, the people who are making the decisions are not necessarily reflective of the melting pot, so what stories are you going to want to tell? You're going to want to tell stories about yourself.
It's amazing marrying someone who wants nothing to do with Hollywood.
Don't boycott the Oscars. Staying away from something that needs to change is no way to change it. Instead, let's help them lead the way in promoting diversity in Hollywood.
