Top 30 Ivan Reitman Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I love horror and sci-fi.”

— Ivan Reitman

2. “The home viewing experience is slightly different and there’s room for these kinds of extra excursions.”

— Ivan Reitman

3. “I call it like the domino theory of reality. If you can go one step at a time and it seems to make sense, you can then take your audience into an area that is relatively outlandish.”

— Ivan Reitman

4. “My first student film was Orientation, which was basically the set-up for Animal House. There are a couple of scenes that we later borrowed in some form.”

— Ivan Reitman

5. “Then my first film was something called Cannibal Girls, which sounds like a horror movie but was actually kind of a goofy comedy with horror elements. Like a horror spoof.”

— Ivan Reitman

6. “It’s been about 15 years, and I’ve never really worked seriously in CGI and I thought that here was an opportunity to do the kinds of things that I was not able to do on Ghostbusters.”

— Ivan Reitman

7. “We got some devastating reviews on Animal House at the start.”

— Ivan Reitman

8. “I think Junior is certainly a science fiction premise as is Twins, as is Dave, beyond Ghostbusters.”

— Ivan Reitman

9. “I’d always been a science fiction enthusiast.”

— Ivan Reitman

10. “I don’t think there will be another Ghostbusters. I think we’re all too old to do it. I think we’ve done it a couple times and there is not that much to get out of it, to do that would be fresh in it.”

— Ivan Reitman

11. “I remember when first, Stripes, and then Animal House came out – which I was really proud of, even though it was kind of loose and quite raucous – there were imitative movies that were not quite as good.”

— Ivan Reitman

12. “I’ve always believed in populating my films with characters who we like, who we have some warmth for, who have warmth for each other, who we would like to hang out with, who we emulate in one way or another.”

— Ivan Reitman

13. “Movies either work or they don’t work and they’re either funny or they’re not and we work very hard. To achieve that kind of work is really kind of delicate stitching.”

— Ivan Reitman

14. “Well, actually, I did start out in comedies. Very, very early.”

— Ivan Reitman

15. “The real trick for me as a director is to make sure that people don’t start pushing because the harder you push as a perform the less funny it becomes.”

— Ivan Reitman

16. “Everybody says how hard comedy is, but, when it comes time to honor things, whether it’s on a weekly critical basis or whether it’s award time, at that time of the year, comedy is the poor, dumb child of dramatic work.”

— Ivan Reitman

17. “The hardest thing for everyone, for the writer, for the director and certainly for the actors, is not to panic when they’re doing a certain line for the tenth time because everything ceases to be funny after it’s been repeated.”

— Ivan Reitman

18. “A good actor is someone who knows how to take the part and make it real and make it honest and be effective in it. If it’s in a funny movie and, as long as they are cast in an appropriate way, humor will come from it.”

— Ivan Reitman

19. “Comedy is a very delicate business, especially comedies that sort of attempt to do things in an honest way and in a very naturalistic way the way that ‘No Strings Attached’ is.”

— Ivan Reitman

20. “I’ve always been a fan of science fiction films, and I’ve never been able to put my particular spin on it.”

— Ivan Reitman

21. “I don’t think my sense of humor has changed at all; I was born with this, for better or for worse.”

— Ivan Reitman

22. “I’m not sure I agree with the thesis, because I think that even though something grotesque or gross has been part of film since way back, what we accept or what we can get away with on the screen is broader now.”

— Ivan Reitman

23. “In a comedy it helps enhance things that were already there.”

— Ivan Reitman

24. “It’s sort of the most important thing for acting, is to listen to the person you’re dealing with.”

— Ivan Reitman

25. “I believe that improvisation is really just a directorial tool. It’s a writing tool.”

— Ivan Reitman

26. “Also watching a movie on DVD is different than watching it in the theater.”

— Ivan Reitman

27. “We watch movies about all sorts of things that we don’t know anything about, but we do get caught up in the human drama.”

— Ivan Reitman

28. “I always thought that Bill Murray was one of the great actors that I’ve worked with. And I’ve worked with all kinds of people who are known primarily for their dramatic work.”

— Ivan Reitman

29. “I believe that improvisation is really just a directorial tool. It’s a writing tool. It’s not so much that the actors get to say whatever they want, whatever pops into their head. It’s an opportunity to write the last draft of the screenplay as you’re working on it.”

— Ivan Reitman

30. “Much of romantic relationships today have to do when the people are not in the same room. Whether it’s texting or e-mailing or Facebooking, there’s a kind of distance between the participants.”

— Ivan Reitman

31. “I always see things that I can improve. But frankly with Stripes, I’m surprised at how effective it is, even today, and how vibrant that movie is and how juicy the performances all are.”

— Ivan Reitman

32. “I’d love to do a musical actually. My background is in music. I have a bachelors in music. I thought that I was going to be a composer, long ago when I first started. So it was amazingly fun to do those two routines in the film.”

— Ivan Reitman

33. “My sense is, I think it’s okay for directors to do movies that speak to other work in their career.”

— Ivan Reitman

34. “I never like to do parodies. I never do. It’s just not my style of comedy.”

— Ivan Reitman