A biography for Damien Chazellehasn’t been written yet.
“I love the idea of thinking of cinema as not that far from music. A lot of my favourite movie makers, the way they move their cameras or the way they cut just feel very musical - even if the movies have no music in them at all.”
“It was only through getting interested in more out-there and avant-garde forms that the musical suddenly seemed like such a wonderful genre to me.”
“My version of a stress dream is, really, showing up on a concert stage with a drum set and not knowing the chart.”
“ANDREW: But do you think there’s a line? You know, where you discourage the next Charlie Parker from becoming Charlie Parker?FLETCHER: No. Because the next Charlie Parker would never be discouraged.”
“I'm too self-serious for a comedy.”
“I would break a lot of cymbals. You whack the cymbals hard enough, and they will crack in half. Drums are not actually as sturdy as they look. They're actually somewhat fragile instruments.”
“It's easy to show terrible people's behavior on screen, and we all just kind of nod and go, 'Isn't that terrible.' It's more interesting when you can show terrible behavior in the interest of something good.”
“Nothing is guaranteed to last, so you should just enjoy it as it happens.”
“The first thing I did as a child was draw. I wanted to make animated movies. I think Disney's 'Cinderella' was the first movie I ever saw. 'Peter Pan' was the first movie I ever saw in the movie theater. I grew up with 'Dumbo' and 'Pinocchio' and 'Sword in the Stone.' Those were the movies I wanted to make.”
“'Whiplash' was always the song I hated the most because it's a song designed to screw with drummers.”
“I handle screenings and award ceremonies really badly.”
“By the end of high school, I had this fork-in-the-road moment where part of me considered going to vocational music school to really pursue it.”
“In a weird way, I'm always going to ground myself. I'm an insecure kind of pessimist, but I'm always kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“It's a weird thing where, especially in jazz, you have to totally mention cutting sessions and people one-upping each other and people being super, super tough on each other. And out of it emerge these genius musicians.”
“People aren't inherently sympathetic.”
“I tend to latch on to things and not let go.”
“Certainly, grades only matter so much when you're in Hollywood. But I became an utterly motivated, devoted, committed student. I was a good student because I was convinced that it would somehow help me in my quest to become a filmmaker.”
“I was interested in music and making movies about musicians, but my own experiences, and doing what it felt like for me to be a drummer? Nah, I wasn't interested in that.”
“There are a lot of musicians in my life. But movies came first for me. That was my original passion.”
“I love the ending of 'The Wrestler.'”