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When You're Making Your 20th Movie, It Might Be The 20th Most Incredible Thing That's Ever Happened To You!
-Judd Apatow
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When You're Making Your

Judd Apatow
...
When You're Making Your 20th Movie, It Might Be The 20th Most Incredible Thing That's Ever Happened To You!

Understanding the Quote: "when you're making your 20th movie, it might be the 20th most..."

This quote by Judd Apatow reflects deeply on the theme of incredibles. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Incredibles, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Judd Apatow interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow is celebrated for insightful thoughts on incredibles and motivation. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Incredibles
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Magic
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Way
Tvs
People Talk About Universal Intelligence ... I'm Reticent To Believe Almost Anything, Just Because My Parents Weren't Religious At All, But That's When I Feel It. People Talk About Being In The "flow."
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Believe
People
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Wow
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Mature
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Artist
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Thinking
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Smart
Chicago
Remember
I Very Rarely Made Any Move To Direct Anything. I Didn't Have Any Faith In Myself.
Moving
Made
Direct
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.
Bother
Ruined
I've Come To Realize That People Connect More When They Know You're Telling Them The Truth Or Some Aspect Of Your Story, Some Mutated Version Of How You Are Experiencing This Life.
People
Stories
Realizing
There's Something So Scary About Trying Out New Material And Being Completely Comfortable Jumping Into The Abyss With A Comedic Idea.
Jumping
Ideas
Scary
The Only Way You Survive On All These Services Is If You're Groundbreaking. There's Pressure To Be Groundbreaking, Which Is The Greatest Thing That's Ever Happened. It's A Bizarre Aspect Of What's Happened With All Of These Subscription Services Is Everyone Is Trying To Outdo Each Other By Doing Great Things.
Trying
Way
Pressure
I Wrote For Roseanne. I Wrote Her Stand-up Act With Her. I Wrote With Tom Arnold. There Was A Period When I Was Working With Them Pretty Steadily. But I Would Take Brief Gigs Here And There.
Here And There
Gigs
Periods
I Used To Bug All Of The Comedians For Interviews, And When People Want To Talk To Me, Sometimes I'm Very Receptive And Sometimes I Say No. Sometimes If I Say No, I Think, "if They're Smart, They'll Figure Out How To Not Accept This No."
Smart
Thinking
People
I Have To Go Back To Vinyl Every Once In Awhile, Even If My Kids Don't Want To Hear It. I'm Much More Likely To Be Listening To Wilco Or The Avett Brothers.
Brother
Kids
Listening
I Like Working With People On Their First Movies. I Think That You Never Get That Level Of Effort Again. And I Think That Most People Only Have A Couple Of Amazing Stories From Their Lives, So You're Getting The Best Of Them.
Couple
Thinking
People
With Comedy, A Lot Of People Develop Their Sense Of Humor As A Defense Mechanism.
People
Defense
Comedy
Everyone Is Wounded. No One Is Healthy Enough To Never Screw Up, When You're In Combat. But, I Like To Show That, And I Like To Show How People Get Back From That. You Have To Forgive Each Other. When You're In The Middle Of A Long-term Commitment, The Essence Of It Is That Everyone Is Going To Have Good Days And Bad Days, And It's About How You Continue To Rejoin Forces.
Commitment
Good Day
Bad Day
'the Night Of.' I Pray There Will Be More.
Night
Praying
I Pray
I Like Human Comedies - Or Dramedies. More Than Anything, I'm Interested In People Just Dealing With Everyday Things That Are Difficult, And There Is More Than Enough Comedy And Drama In That.
Drama
People
Everyday
My First Writing Jobs Were Writing Tom Arnold Specials For Hbo, So I Love Working There.
Jobs
Writing
Hbo
I Started A Radio Show Where I Interviewed Comics. And I Interviewed Leno And Seinfeld And John Candy And Father Guido Sarducci And Garry Shandling, All When I Was 16. And They Kind Of Told Me What To Do.
Father
Radio
Kind
I Don't Think Because A Story Has Humor In It Means It's Brief. For Some Reason, People Think Anything That's 30 Minutes Is A Comedy, Comedies Can Be Longer Or Shorter, So Can Dramas.
Drama
Mean
Thinking
I Think There Have Been So Many Documentaries About Pop Stars, Made By Pop Stars. It's A New Phenomenon. People Making These Movies Where They Praise Themselves And Show Their Own Weaknesses. It's All Designed To Make You Love Them Even More.
Stars
Thinking
People
I Have A Four-and-a-half-year-old And, When She Was Two And A Half, She Would Make My Wife And I Do Voices, Like Woody And Jessie The Cowgirl, Or Elmo, Or Yogi Bear And Booboo. If We Didn't Do It, She Would Scream At Us. So, My Wife And I Would Have Adult Conversations As Yogi Bear And Booboo. It Was Just A Nightmare Year.
Two
Voice
Years
Humor Is His Defense Mechanism, So That Would Allow Me To Talk About Some Serious Subjects, But Get A Lot Of Hilarious Jokes In.
Serious
Jokes
When You Make A Movie, You Just Send It Off Into The World. You Never Actually Live It With The Crowd.
World
Crowds
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.
Suffering
Ordinary
Want
In My Work, There Is A Lot Of Storytelling. The Storytelling Is Not A New Thing. Back In The [howard] Thurston Days, The [harry] Houdini Days, The [harry] Blackstone Days, It Was Stories, But The Stories Were, "we're Going To The Egyptian Temples, And We're Going To Vanish The Prince Of Thebes," And, "on My Last Trip To The Orient ..."
One Day
Stories
Lasts
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.
Years
People
Freak
Every Day I Live By Only One Rule, Be A Good Guy.
Guy
Good Guy
Live By
There's No Logic In How Donald Trump Thinks. I Don't Want Someone Who's The President Who Says 3 To 5 Million People Voted Illegally When There's Zero Proof. It's A Crazy Person.
Zero
Crazy
Thinking
I Start Casting Early In The Writing Process, So I Can Tailor The Script To The Gifts Of The Actors.
Writing
Actors
Tailors
Sometimes, Something Seems Dead, And Then Out Of The Blue, Someone Just Figures Out The Way To Fix A Script And It Goes.
Blue
Way
Scripts
Some People Make Movies And Think, "well, I'll Just Keep Asking For More Money If This Isn't Enough." And Then There Are Other People, Like Clint Eastwood, Who Always Come In Under Budget.
Thinking
People
Asking
I Love The Lonely Island. I Wish There Was More Lonely Island Movies.
Lonely
Islands
Wish
Most People Are Really Fighting To Not Be Adults. And, When It Happens, It's A Big Transition. And A Lot Of That Is Just Awful. It's Awful To Have To Get A Job And Really Be Responsible For Other People. And It Is Funny, Too. Like, We're All Kind Of Little Idiot Kids Trying To Act Like We Know What We Are Doing.
Jobs
Kids
Fighting
There's Nothing More Fun Than Debating And Defending Your Taste In Music.
Fun
Taste In Music
Taste
I Feel Like Everybody's Waiting For A Job Y'know, You Can Make A Movie On Your Phone. And So There Really Is No Reason To Worry About How To Get In With People- And You Can Do That, There's A Lot To Learn Working For People -but You Can Just Make A Movie, Where In The Old Days That Was Completely Impossible.
Jobs
Phones
Worry
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.
Film Critics
People
Magazines
It's Funny When People Debate About Music, Because They Get So Passionate About What They Enjoy.
People
Passionate
Debate
Every Time I Perform In Front Of People, No Matter How Well It Goes, The Next Day, I Feel Humiliated.
Next Day
People
Matter
I Thought The Idea Jim [carrey] Had, Which Was To Do A Comedic Version Of Movies Like The Hand That Rocks The Cradle And Unlawful Entry, Was Really Funny. The Movie Was A Little Lighter When We First Came On, A Little More Like What About Bob? Or Something.
Ideas
Rocks
Hands
I'm Always Surprised When You Do Something Very Different That People Don't Get Behind You More, Because You're Always Told, "take Chances! Stretch!" And When You Do It, Sometimes People Get Really Supportive And Excited, But Sometimes People Go At You Because You've Tossed Out The Formula.
People
Supportive
Different
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.
Emotional
Careers
Issues
I Think The World Is Changing And All That Matters Is That I'm Creating Things.
Thinking
World
I Think A Lot Of Studios Today Are Run By Women, And We Are Entering A Time When A Lot Of Women Have Evolved In Second City And Upright Citizens Brigade And Wanted To Become Writers And Comedians.
Running
Thinking
Cities
I Didn't Want To Be A Director For Hire. It Really Just Took Me A Long Time To Learn How To Direct And To Feel Up To The Job.
Jobs
Long
Directors
I'm Getting Older, So How People Face Grave Circumstances Is Of Interest To Me. And You Meet A Lot Of People Who Are Very Courageous, And It Doesn't Reek Of Something Funny To Write About, But I Always Think That The Higher The Stakes, The Bigger The Laughs Can Be, And The More Emotional The Scenes Can Be.
Writing
Emotional
Thinking
It's A Fun Idea, To Follow A Couple Very Slowly And Show Every Nook And Cranny Of Their Relationship.
Couple
Fun
Ideas
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.
Thinking
Should Have
Magic
At Network Television You Could Make A Show Like Freaks And Geeks, And Even Though 7 Million People Watch Is Every Week, You Were Considered A Terrible Failure, And They Got Rid Of You And Staff. Now ... It's Like A World Where The Replacements Are The Biggest Fans In The World. It's, The Elvis Costellos Of Television Are The Winners. Creativity Is King And It's Very Very Exciting.
Kings
Creativity
People
I Was Very Combative As A Creative Person At That Time [while The Ben Stiller Show]. I Didn't Understand How To Play Politics With The Studios. I Didn't Know How To Creatively Collaborate With The People Who Were Paying The Bills, And That Came Up All The Time On Every Project I Was Doing, And It Took Me A Really Long Time To Figure Out How To Collaborate In A Healthy Way.
Play
Long
People
When I Notice That All The Beats Sound Exactly The Same, It Starts To Wear On Me.
Sound
Beats
For A Long Time, Tv Was Just The Land Of Handsome, Beautiful People, And Now It's The Opposite.
Beautiful
Land
Opposites
I Think A Lot Of Hollywood Is In Retreat Right Now Trying To Figure Out How To Make Money And Make The Safest Bets.
Thinking
Trying
Hollywood
Some People Are Probably Saner. They're Good Performers, And They Go About Their Day. I Just Get Obsessive About It.
People
Obsessive
Performers
Penn [jillette] And Teller And I Get Along Very Well. We Can Call Each Other And Say, "i'm Working On This Classic Effect. Please, I'd Like To Do It For A While." We'll All Respect It. There Are People We Don't Get Along With, But Mostly There Is A Respect Amongst The Group.
People
Groups
Classic
Something Economically Changed. It Used To Be That You Needed 20 Million People To Watch A Tv Show For It To Be A Hit. Now, With Just A Few Million People Watching, You're Considered Very Successful, For A Lot Of These Streaming Services, Or Cable Channels. Now, That Allows People To Do Much More Creatively Ambitious Work, Because It's Not Lowest Common Denominator.
Successful
Tv Shows
People
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!"
Long
People
Entertainment
Even Now If I See Someone Working Out, In Great Shape, Like A 40-year-old Guy With His Shirt Off Jogging I Always Think, "look At That Idiot." That's Why Everyone In My Movie Is Kind Of Goofy Because I'm A Champion Of The Goofball. What Sucks Is I Have To Work Out Now Not To Die. I Was Always Happy Not Working Out Because I Never Wanted To Be Someone Who Worked Out To Look Good, But Now I Have To Try To Not Die, Which Is Such A Drag.
Thinking
Work Out
Guy
The First Comedians I Became Fascinated With Were The Marx Brothers. I Couldn't Get Enough Of Them. Later In Life, I Thought, "well, Maybe It's Because They Were So Rebellious And They Were Just Flipping The Bird To Society And All The Rules We're Supposed To Follow." They Were Saying That None Of It Is Fair.
Brother
Later In Life
Bird
My Dad Was A Big Fan Of Comedy. He Wanted To Be A Stand-up. He Loved Lenny [bruce]. He Also Loved Lord Buckley And Jazz And Stuff. He Was A Hipster. My Parents Were Kind Of Beatnik-y, You Know, For Salt Lake City. But My Humor, I Think, Came From Wanting To Disarm People Before They Hit Me.
Dad
Hipster
Thinking
I Think That Everything I Do Tends To Root For The Underdog.
Thinking
Roots
Underdog
If Anything Is Leaking, I Try To Plug The Hole.
Trying
Holes
Plugs
You Can Work On A Movie For Years, And You Won't Know Until You Show It To An Audience For The First Time If It Makes Any Sense To Them At All, If They're Touched, If They Find It Funny, So It's Endlessly Exciting, Because Failure Is Just Right There All The Time, And Your Chances Of Success Don't Rise That Much Based On The Fact That You Succeeded Last Time.
Years
Firsts
Facts
I Was Bad At Sports And Picked Last Every Day. I Couldn't Quite Figure Out What My Role Was In The Social Order, So I Decided I Was Interested In Comedy. And What Was Then Interesting Was, Nobody Else Was Interested In It At All. I Didn't Find One Friend Who Was Interested In Comedy Until I Moved To California And Met Other Comedians. And Suddenly I Knew Hundreds Of People Who Knew As Much About Sctv As I Did. But It Took Me 20 Years To Find Those People.
Sports
People
Interesting
The Cable Guy Was Underbudgeted, So It Was Always A Debate About Whether We Could Have More Days Or Certain Things That We Needed, Because The Budget Was Determined Before The Script Was Written. So That Made It A Hard Production On Everybody. But It's Also A Funny Thing, Because It's One Of Those Movies That Cost $40 Million To Make And Made $100 Million Around The World, But At The Time, It Seemed Like A Disaster That It Didn't Make Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars, Because Jim Was On Such A Tear. But It Was Actually A Successful Movie.
Successful
Funny Things
Guy
A Lot Of Bands That Are Great Disappear A Little Bit Faster Than They Used To. They Don't Get As Much Support For The Long Haul. You Have To Be Pretty Tough To Hang In There.
Long
Support
Band
I Did Get Good Enough To Get On Hbo's Young Comedians Special, But I Certainly Wasn't The Person Who Got Launched Off Of Hbo's Young Comedians Special. That Would Be Ray Romano That Year. I Had Some Semi-intelligent Jokes, But When People Would See Me, They Would Think, "oh, That's A Good Writer." No One Would Ever Have Said, "oh, That's A Good Performer."
Intelligent
Thinking
Hbo
I've Always Appreciated People Like Graham Parker Or Loudon Wainwright Iii, Who Spend Their Entire Lives Writing Songs And Working Their Asses Off Just To Have Complete Artistic Freedom. They're Just Sharing Their Lives With You Through Their Music. That's The Same Kind Of Work That I'm Trying To Do, In My Own Weird Way.
Song
Writing
People
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.
Kids
People
Appreciate
I Was In The Recording Studio When Pink Was Recording For A Part Of The Gay Rights Anthem. It Was Just Amazing To Watch Her Perform. She's Just Such An Incredible Singer. She So Funny, And So Smart, Yet She's Doing It For This Silly, Silly Song.
Song
Smart
Silly
It's Funny, Now There Are So Many Bands That I Can Never Remember Any Of Their Names. Maybe It's Because I'm Old.
Names
Band
Remember
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Category
Information