Mike Mills Quotes

Grief and memory go together. After someone dies, that's what you're left with. And the memories are so slippery yet so rich.

We never did things as we were supposed to do. That was part of our ethic. We did what felt right to us, not what someone told us we should do.

I'm not a craftsman of graphics or art or film. I'm more of an idea generator and manufacturer.

As a son of a man who pretended to be one thing for 33 years of my life and then was another thing, the questions of 'what is real' and 'what is not real' are very blurrily vivid to me.

The littlest thing can have the strongest connection when you're grieving. Your Proustian, poetic nerve is turned up to ten.

My graffiti really comes more from a May '68, sort of Situationist vibe than the hip-hop world. I think a real graffiti artist would find me a poser.

I am intrigued by inanimate objects. They're a piece of history, someone's statement and ideas of life.

Actors are pretending for you, but they're not lying. They are not putting on a guise instead of themselves. They are finding things inside that they have experienced.

Humans are vulnerable, messy little animals and that's normal. And all I want to do is make a space for that in my films.

There is a drunkenness to grief, which is good.

I was so happy with my bow ties from the last kickstarted project that I'm back for more.

It's funny now how much we look at - whatever you want to call it: art, design, culture stuff, film - online, and how in the online world, you're instantly global.

To me, sadness and humor aren't disrelated and humor is the best tool I've had against the sadness in my life.

The oldest sibling always knows things that the younger ones don't.

I'm into people's emotional lives and relationships and the complications of living. That's my turf.

I pretty much believe that a film is a film and when an audience watches a film, they finish it.

I guess I watch movies to make myself happier a lot.

I don't really believe that documentary is objective reality and fiction is all illusion.

I definitely believe in the energy of the set and the energy of the actor, way more than your written word.

Film is endlessly just beyond your reach. I think that's what I love so much about it.

Life is too short for a half-rack.

L.A. is so isolated and unhip in a way; it gives you room to figure out who you are and explore more personal stuff.

To me it's like, every time I'm a director, like today, you're the captain of the ship, so you better dress like it. You're the host of the party.

Over and over again, I'm trying to express or communicate these big and small struggles to the world, and really to myself.