A biography for Jonathan Levinehasn’t been written yet.
“I always look at myself as kind of a work in progress. I hope that's not always the case. But for me, every film is a learning experience.”
“I like a pretty relaxed, fun set. Everyone knows they can bring whoever they want and hang out.”
“The way 'Coming Home' uses music in general is incredible, but the final song that really kind of crescendos all of the emotion that the whole movie has kind of been building to is this song called 'Once I Was' by Tim Buckley.”
“It's rare that movies can sort of capture the tone of life; movies always feel like they have to be one thing or another.”
“I was actually shooting 'Warm Bodies' on the day that '50/50' came out, which I don't recommend to other filmmakers because I was sort of a wreck. Actually, it was good for me, because I had work to do, so I couldn't obsess all day and be checking how '50/50' was doing!”
“For me, I just value my friendships so much. I mean, I love my family, too, but my friends - I have a really special connection with my friends.”
“I think that's the great thing about zombies, is, you know, going back to even 'Night of the Living Dead,' they've always been a tool for kind of holding up a mirror to us and showing us something about ourselves that we might not otherwise know.”
“I have a cameo in every movie. In '50/50,' I'm in the back of the bus.”
“Do I wish I was Martin Scorsese? Yeah. But am I really proud of the movies I've made and really happy that I get to keep making them? Yes.”
“I've had a couple of family members deal with cancer, and I remember that moment where they're going into surgery, and you just have no idea what's going to happen, and it's really scary.”
“I'm always walking around with headphones on, creating my own soundtracks to whatever the day is. I think I have a poppy sensibility.”
“I don't like being pigeonholed at all. It stemmed from after 'Mandy Lane': I was being offered all these horror movies. I love horror movies, but when I dreamed of being a director, it was always doing all sorts of things.”
“My first real television-watching experience was when I watched 'L.A. Law,' like, at 10 o'clock Thursday nights with my parents. They would let me stay up late.”
“For whatever reason, the films I gravitate towards do have these strange sort of tonal balances to them... I kind of realized on '50/ 50' why I liked these blending of tones, because I think it's kind of what life is like: funny one minute, sad the next, scary the next.”
“'Warm Bodies' - I was contractually obligated to deliver a PG-13 movie. But, like, I wanted it to be PG-13 because it's for younger people, and I don't want them not to be able to see it. I mean, you have to kind of think about the marketplace as well.”
“To me, using music is creating a shorthand with an audience. And I love music so much.”
“I've been a huge fan of Hal Ashby forever. And I think that the distinctive thing about 'Coming Home' is the love story, and how - kind of emotionally real it is, and how these two characters allow each other to see their - kind of vulnerabilities. And it's great because it's a love story that's not really that cheesy, either.”
“I definitely think New York is a very, very vibrant, wonderful city, but I certainly, of course, can't help but miss a lot of the stuff that's no longer there.”
“There's so often - in filmmaking, you're backed into something that already has these set parameters, whether it's a sequel or a book that people love.”
“On '50/50,' even though it was 8 million dollars, it was all acting-intensive.”