Quotes from Ron Howard

Time moves more slowly when you're young, because life is still new to you, a process of discovery.

Before Bush, I used to think that the choice of president really didn't matter, that the system kind of ran on its own- that whatever they said during the campaign, the system of checks and balances was really bigger than any individual. But that is what has been so chilling about seeing some of the decisions that have been made unilaterally over the past eight years.

Your creativity has value. You're not wasting your time dreaming.

Your creativity has value. You are not wasting your time dreaming.

The best I can explain this uncharacteristic outburst is that I had seen a coach go ballistic on TV, and the actor in me overtook the coach.

deepened with time. Nowadays I am often the veteran on the set. I try to be conscious of the effect that my words and actions have on the people with whom I'm working, mindful of how one single comment could affect someone's life trajectory . .

It takes a commitment to nurture family relationships over years and decades:

These pages capture a turning point in the entertainment industry, as told through the personal lens of one family.

Make sure you take some animation classes, because animation is pure filmmaking. You don't have to deal with the actors.

As my Dad says in these pages, the success our family has achieved is something no of us takes for granted. It wasn't destined. And we could have just as easily ended up Oklahoma farmers as Hollywood creators. As is so often the way, a few breaks in a different direction, in what might feel like fate would have unfolded along a now unrecognizable path.

It's a great time to be a creator. Trust your creativity.

With 'Apollo 13,' I wasn't sure the genre would work, because space films hadn't done that well.

There are creative benefits to getting older.

Can you imagine the first time they figured out how to mechanically raise somebody up through the stage and make them appear, or drop them down on a rope or a wire? It blew everybody's minds, I'm sure.

I think it's in our nature to try to get beyond that next horizon. I think that when we, as a species, are scratching that itch, we're actually following an evolutionary compulsion that is wired into us. I think good things come of it.

A scene, a day of shooting, can often make you feel kind of stupid and inept because your one job is to anticipate and react and know what to go for.

Anytime you really take a close look at people who are dealing with the aging process, you're going to have a complicated reaction to what you're seeing and feeling. If you're in the middle of it, those emotions are going to be quadrupled. It's immediate, it's relatable, so it's good human drama.

I'm not a caterer. I just have to stay with my creative convictions. At some point, you have to just get past the special-interest groups and do what you're there to do, which is make a movie.

There's something rare and wonderful that's very particular to television, and it's when a great cast meets a great show runner/creator with the right set of characters to play. That's what happened with 'Arrested Development.' It happens every so often, but all too rarely on TV.

I developed a theory that, in many ways, the early 'Andy Griffith' episodes especially were an awful lot like a Capra movie. They were a lot like 'Mr. Deeds' or a lot like 'It's a Wonderful Life' in tone and presentation.

I love all kinds of stories and movies, and I did work hard to get through to the creative community and studio executives that I could work in a number of different genres and tones.

Early in the second season of 'The Andy Griffith Show,' I ventured a suggestion for a line change to make it sound more 'like the way a kid would say it.' I was just 7 years old. But my idea was accepted, and I remember standing frozen, thrilled at what this moment represented to me.

A long time ago, I stopped trying to look at projects as genre exercises.

We assume that healthy habits are a good idea, but in and of themselves, they are not the reason we're going to be active at age 95 or 100. The body works in more complex ways.