Top 120 Judd Apatow Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Don’t be a jerk. Try to love everyone. Give more than you take. And do it despite the fact that you only really like about seven out of 500 people.”

— Judd Apatow

2. “Sometimes you need to get away for a few weeks just to figure out who you are again.”

— Judd Apatow

3. “Every day I live by only one rule, be a good guy.”

— Judd Apatow

4. “People like the comedy more when they care about the characters.”

— Judd Apatow

5. “You know, I’m a big comedy fan.”

— Judd Apatow

6. “No matter how much you love someone, on a bad day, you could say something terrible. All of the little things that you are saving to say, that you’re mad about but never express, sometimes come out, all at once. We all have these terrible moments. That’s just part of being human.”

— Judd Apatow

7. “I love Coldplay. I love Steely Dan – Steely Dan’s probably one of my top three bands of all time.”

— Judd Apatow

8. “A lot of times, it’s easy to trim the movie ’cause you just start losing things that you thought would be there just for amusement’s sake that actually are not funny. My favorite part of the process is seeing it with an audience. I do about eight previews to see how things are working.”

— Judd Apatow

9. “There are people that entertainment is something they do at the end of a long hard day at work, and they want to be entertained and have it over quickly. They’re like, “Entertain me fast!””

— Judd Apatow

10. “I need to find people who I respect so I can respect them, and they’ll like being respected so they’ll respect me, and that’s like a marriage.”

— Judd Apatow

11. “I love the Lonely Island. I wish there was more Lonely Island movies.”

— Judd Apatow

12. “I don’t want to be ordinary. I’m willing to do the work. I’m willing to suffer the indignities of comedy because I want to be great. I don’t want to just be good. I want to be great.”

— Judd Apatow

13. “Eventually, the nerds and the geeks will have their day.”

— Judd Apatow

14. “I feel like Superbad and Freaks And Geeks are somewhat timeless. That’s always gratifying, when you feel like 30 years in the future, people will still get it, and it won’t seem creaky. It won’t come across like The Incredible Mr. Limpet.”

— Judd Apatow

15. “I’m always begging people like James Brooks and Cameron Crowe to come to screenings, to see what they make of it, and they’re always ridiculously helpful. They also keep me brave enough to commit to what I’m trying to do. They can be great cheerleaders for risk-taking.”

— Judd Apatow

16. “It’s funny when people debate about music, because they get so passionate about what they enjoy.”

— Judd Apatow

17. “Cocky nerds. My wife and I always talk about it. It’s people who think they don’t think ill of themselves – they actually think that there’s something special about themselves but no one’s noticed it... And that’s what makes them interesting. They have an air of superiority as they’re getting pummeled.”

— Judd Apatow

18. “I don’t think I’m going to get so mature that I lose touch with the whatever wounded part of myself that feels the need to be funny. I’m already old enough that I realize that’s not going to happen.”

— Judd Apatow

19. “I think that everything I do tends to root for the underdog.”

— Judd Apatow

20. “I just try to be true to myself and write about things I’m passionate about. I think what most people don’t like about movies is they can tell that most movies are a product, and they don’t mean that much to the people who make them.”

— Judd Apatow

21. “I definitely learned to embrace the quiet moments onstage from Garry Shandling – relaxing and not fighting with the crowd, not raising your voice, not ever trying to win them over.”

— Judd Apatow

22. “I had a very specific type of terrible network experience where I was told that people like Seth Rogen and Jason Segel weren’t leads, so it truly drove me mad. So to be trusted is all I value.”

— Judd Apatow

23. “Mel, if you’re going to go up to the bell, ring it.”

— Judd Apatow

24. “Life is ridiculous, so why not be a good guy?” That may be the only religion I have to this day.”

— Judd Apatow

25. “There’s something honorable about holding out for love and not breaking up for the sake of the baby. I see people get divorced, and there is a part of me that thinks, I wonder how hard they tried?”

— Judd Apatow

26. “I really think more about being honest and truthful about feelings and how people behave for the movies that I direct, but I also love movies like Zohan and Anchorman, just balls to the wall, how much can you make people laugh in one 90 minute period.”

— Judd Apatow

27. “If anything is leaking, I try to plug the hole.”

— Judd Apatow

28. “The only thing worse than a crappy TV show which Paddy Chayevsky couldn’t have conceived in his worst nightmare is two megacorps fighting over who thought of the crappy show first.”

— Judd Apatow

29. “I love magazines and film critics, so I eat it up. I’m not one of those people who says ‘I never read anything.’ I generally read all of it.”

— Judd Apatow

30. “I’ve had movies bomb with terrible reviews, I’ve had movies make a lot of money with terrible reviews, I’ve had movies get good reviews and make money. And I like it best when the movies do well and the reviewers like them.”

— Judd Apatow

31. “Some stories feel like they need more time or less time to tell. To not obsessively have to trim or add that final two or three minutes is very helpful, because you can just organically follow how the story feels.”

— Judd Apatow

32. “I always felt as a kid that I was underappreciated, invisible or weird, but I’ve always secretly thought people would one day appreciate what is different about me. I’m always putting that message out there.”

— Judd Apatow

33. “I’m just trying to be truthful and collaborate with people who have interesting things to say.”

— Judd Apatow

34. “Deer are like dogs. Except for Bambi, they’re pretty personality-less.”

— Judd Apatow

35. “There’s nothing more fun than debating and defending your taste in music.”

— Judd Apatow

Featured in: Fun Quotes

36. “In terms of the emotional underpinning, if you’ve been in relationships, you understand what’s happening.”

— Judd Apatow

37. “I think the story should always determine the visual approach. There are situations where you want things to feel alive and like life, and there are situations that should have some magic and the separation with the grain.”

— Judd Apatow

38. “Marc: Why are we so afraid of joy? Judd: That’s the question. And I’ve thought about it a lot, and I think it’s because we think right behind joy is a knife that will cut our throat if we really feel it. It’s almost like a laugh – your chin goes up and your throat is exposed. If I laugh too loud, someone will slit my throat. That’s the terror of joy.”

— Judd Apatow

39. “The great thing about Eminem is, he’s just hysterical. You forget, people like Eminem because he is riotously funny. And he’s a great actor.”

— Judd Apatow

40. “When the entire country was watching one show there was a major discussion happening; is it possible for that to happen in a 1 million channel universe?”

— Judd Apatow

41. “I think a lot of Hollywood is in retreat right now trying to figure out how to make money and make the safest bets.”

— Judd Apatow

42. “The thing that ruined your life makes you good at your work. And then you get rewarded at work, so you don’t bother to fix it in your life.”

— Judd Apatow

43. “I don’t really get attached to anything. I’m pretty brutal about cutting stuff. With each successful movie, I’ve discovered anything that’s not connected to the immediate story is going to be cut out of it.”

— Judd Apatow

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

44. “I am always driven by the terror of humiliation.”

— Judd Apatow

45. “Just trying to tell the truth about, you know, the struggle of – being alive is funny, it’s just inherently tragic and also hilarious – in a fun way and in a sad way. That seems to connect with people.”

— Judd Apatow

Featured in: Fun Quotes

46. “Every time I’m in editing, there’s always a moment where you think, “Maybe this should be six or seven minutes shorter, but I’m losing character and story that I think is important.” When I like things, I’m not in a rush for them to end.”

— Judd Apatow

47. “I used to scream at everybody at the beginning of my career. I’d get really emotional. I’d project all my issues about my parents and safety onto the executives, so every conversation where they gave a note was life or death and you don’t love me.”

— Judd Apatow

48. “Sometimes, something seems dead, and then out of the blue, someone just figures out the way to fix a script and it goes.”

— Judd Apatow

49. “If you watch the arcs of so many comedians, at some point, they just become themselves.”

— Judd Apatow

50. “I don’t think there’s that many great 90-minute comedies.”

— Judd Apatow