Adam McKay Quotes

For a documentary it's so important to find the characters and to find people who will give you access to film

If you make action movies, the critics will savage you, and then your movies are outdated the following week with the new wave of special effects.

All we have is our vote. But it's powerful.

We punch mirrors and we explore our darker selves. No, it's just an amalgam of all newscasters that we grew up with. Sort of like before there was cable, when these people were like gods.

Every time I wrote a sketch that was in my voice, Ferrell would just do it better.

There's such an aggressively apolitical movement in the US that anything that smells of being political - even the term "political" is so ridiculous, when you think about it. The worst part of governing, the political side, is the grossest part, so that's what they call it. So anything that reeks of that immediately gets tuned out by 70 percent of the population.

There's a lot of things you can't control. But you can always be a pro.

“Firewall” seems both scary and protective at the same time. And how often does that happen within one word besides “military” and “government?”

As for movies, what's great about comedy is that if your movie gets laughs and makes money, you have freedom.

I think American culture had just become so disengaged from the process of government, and we'd been so fuzzed out by our pop culture around us, that I don't think people really saw this guy for what he was.

We're always looking for the backbone, the central idea, and once you have that you know everything can circle around it.

I think that the job of art and culture is to jump on that time and realize that it's there and to push it just a little bit faster.

I have certain beliefs about how people should treat employees and how companies should be run, but I was really surprised though this process to learn that those beliefs are actually good business.

As far as how much you listen to the audience, you listen to them when they really hate something.

Benito Mussolini created the word 'fascism.' He defined it as 'the merging of the state and the corporation.' He also said a more accurate word would be 'corporatism.' This was the definition in Webster's up until 1987 when a corporation bought Webster's and changed it to exclude any mention of corporations.

Normally when it hits two and a half, three hours, the audience gets exhausted and start yawning.

We get so much information during the day that doesn't really tell us anything.

If all else fails, you can always be a pro.

I would never call myself cultural elite, but you might be cultural elite.

Old man with an old phone. That's never not funny.

Any time Chris Nolan wants to call me for advice, he can.