I was never ambitious. I just wanted to have quiet, calm, listen to public radio and say, hello, how are you? Sit down, rest. But I had an early partner named Fred Freeman, a wonderful writer who I met at Northwestern. And I thought we were doing very well with "Jack Paar," and he said, no, we got to go to Hollywood. We got to write sitcom. It's the coming thing.

Garry Marshall

Categorized in : Writing Radio Ambitious

It's always helpful to learn from your mistakes because then your mistakes seem worthwhile.

Garry Marshall

worthwhile helpful mistake

I'm too old to be forced.

Garry Marshall

Learn to work with people you wouldn't go to lunch with.

Garry Marshall

lunch people

If you’ve got the comedy eye, you can look at any situation and see the humor in it while others don’t.

Garry Marshall

comedy eye looks

I am a total believer of making the process a good time - make it memorable, have some fun, try to shoot high in your quality and then dont get crazy, see what happens.

Garry Marshall

crazy memorable fun

Never underestimate the power of your sister.

Garry Marshall

never-underestimate underestimate

One of my thrills of the business is to find young people, there's a window. I like young people who are in that brief window between on their-way-up and rehab. In that window I can make stars. It's not really true but it's not so far off.

Garry Marshall

stars i-like-you people

There's no better satisfaction than writing. I feel that writing is the best and everything else comes with it

Garry Marshall

satisfaction writing feels

You go to a theater now and you literally see parents watching the movie and they suddenly cover their kid's ears. I figured I'd make one movie where they didn't have to do this.

Garry Marshall

umpires parent kids

Editing is the only process. The shooting is the pleasant work. The editing makes the movie, so I spend all my life in editing

Garry Marshall

shooting process editing

I think a lot of creative people have no sense of numbers and economics.

Garry Marshall

numbers people thinking

I'm basically a writer, it's who I am. I direct and I like theatre directing very much. But I've done 17 movies, they don't say 'Let's get Garry, he'll make a helicopter shot,' they say 'Get Garry, he'll fix the script.'

Garry Marshall

scripts theatre who-i-am

If you're creative, they let you be the showrunner, producer. The first thing my partner and I did as producers was hire ourselves as directors - because who else would hire me?

Garry Marshall

creative directors firsts

I made nepotism an art form, so I get to work with a lot of relatives and they're part of it.

Garry Marshall

form made art

I dont sit well. I like to move around as I talk.

Garry Marshall

wells moving

I played a lot of ball and got hurt, stitches and this and that. That, sometimes they said, built character. I don't think it built anything.

Garry Marshall

hurt character thinking

[The movie Beaches] was really about how women fight. Women fight, say terrible things to each other and an hour later they make up and go shopping. I think they got the better idea of how it should be done.

Garry Marshall

fighting beach thinking

Women are pretty good. Women usually fight about some stupid guy and then when they figure out it's just a stupid guy they make up and move on.

Garry Marshall

fighting stupid moving

People always say, well, how do you get through show business? How do you swim the waters? And how do you survive and all that? I had a very solid method, and that is team up with ambitious partners.

Garry Marshall

team water people

My partner after Fred Freeman was Jerry Belson. And Jerry Belson, after I was doing so well writing situation comedy, said, this is not good enough. We got to create our own shows. I said, but we're very happy doing this. No, no, no, you got to get your own show. So he made me - and he and I created our own shows. And we actually - everything we created failed. "Hey, Landlord" was our first show - 99th in the ratings. But imagine this - it's a great reflection on the years.

Garry Marshall

reflection writing years