Quotes from J. J. Abrams

Withholding things in a story is no good if you aren't building to something substantial. It becomes foreplay without the main event, and no one wants that.

I believe in anything that will engage the audience and make the story more effective.

I was more of a Star Wars kid, actually. I always thought Star Trek was a lot of talk, and it felt a little self-important. It was hard for me to get into it.

I do think there's something about the digital age that is increasingly dehumanising us. We're in this very weird place where we're being pulled into experiences that aren't really experiences at all.

Maybe the weirdest moment, which came months after production, was the first time I sat down with John Williams to show him about a half an hour of the movie. I can't describe the feeling. All I will say is, just to state the facts of it: I am about to show John Williams 30 minutes of a Star Wars movie that he has not seen that I directed.

I've always liked working on stories that combine people who are relatable with something insane.

I'm not as optimistic as Gene Roddenberry was. I fall somewhere in the middle. But as a romantic, I like to think things are going to get bigger rather than worse.

I've got to say, I don't think there's winking at all in the original Star Wars. What I feel is everyone is playing it a hundred percent legitimately. What I think is happening is these characters are funny. Even Mark Hamill, when you really think about what he has to do, who he has to play in that movie, the scenes early on when he's dealing with R2 and 3PO, I think he is underrated in terms of his playing a straight man to these droids.

George Lucas was a genius at creating this amazing universe and filling it up with so much heart, soul and hope.

The magic that works, to me, is the magic that feels completely grounded and real and tangible.

Star Wars is probably the most influential film of my generation. That work was the personification of good and evil and the way it opened up the world to space adventure, the way westerns did to our parents' generations, it left an indelible imprint. So, in a way, everything that any of us does is somehow directly or indirectly affected by the experience of seeing those first three films.

Directing's the best part. Whenever I've directed something, there's this feeling of demand and focus that I like. And secondly, it means that you've gotten through all the writing stuff, and the producing stuff, and casting, and prep, and all those stages that are seemingly endless. So directing is sort of the reward for all the work you put in before.

I'm not someone who quite understands the science of the Force. To me Star Wars was never about science fiction -- it was a spiritual story.

I had friends who were great fans of Star Trek and I don't know if I was smart enough to get it, or patient enough. What I loved about Star Wars was the visceral energy of it, the clarity of it, the kind of innocence and big heart of it. Star Trek always felt a little bit more sophisticated and philosophical, debating moral dilemmas and things that were theoretically interesting, but for some reason I couldn't get on board.

I remember being taught to read at a very early age. Like creepy young. I remember being in the crib, reading. My parents were very impressed. My reading speed, comprehension and overall ability has remained at that level ever since.

On movies like Star Trek and Star Wars, you have so much that will be created or extended digitally, and it's a slippery slope where you can get lost in a world of synthetic.

I'd love to do a movie where the monster is human.

I don't want to destroy too many illusions. We're walking a tightrope. If you fall on one side it's no good, because we're showing too much. If you fall on the other side it's no good, because we're not showing anything and we look like arrogant jerks.

There's something about looking at Super 8 films that is so evocative. You could argue it's the resolution of the film somehow because they aren't crystal clear and perfect so there is a kind of gauzy layer between you and what you see. You could argue it's the silence of them. You could say it's the sound of the projectors that create a moodiness. But there's something about looking at analog movies that's infinitely more powerful than digital.

Every once in a while, you are on the set and you look at it from the outside and you are like, "This is ridiculous."

I've just been lucky to work on things that I felt would be cool to see. It's not that I had a strategy or anything.

The comedy that George Lucas put into Star Wars kind of was, for me, the thing that made me love the movie.

There were things about these characters that sucked me in, regardless of and despite their being on Star Trek.

The most exciting thing for me is crossing that bridge between something we know is real and something that is extraordinary. The thing for me has always been how you cross that bridge.