Screenwriters Quotes - Page 6

• He'd discovered that his memories of that summer were like bad movie montages - young lovers tossing a Frisbee in the park, sharing a melting ice-cream cone, bicycling along the river, laughing, talking, kissing, a sappy score drowning out the dialogue because the screenwriter had no idea what these two people might say to each other.

  Richard Russo

  Summer, Memories, Kissing

  FaceBook post by Richard Russo from Jul 31, 2016

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• Guy Ritchie is the worst screenwriter in the world, but, to be fair, he is not the worst director. He is only the worst director of the people who actually get to make movies. As we speak, there are human beings walking the Earth - perhaps as many as a half dozen of them - with less directorial talent, but they've been safely diverted into other activities.

  Mick LaSalle

  People, Guy, Directors

  "Review: Weak Ritchie hurts 'Sherlock Holmes'" by Mick LaSalle, www.sfgate.com. December 25, 2009.

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• No one should feel sorry for a successful screenwriter.

  Tony Gilroy

  Sorry, Successful, Should

  "Interview:'Michael Clayton' director Tony Gilroy. The screenwriter discusses his directorial debut". Interview with Alex Vo, editorial.rottentomatoes.com. October 12, 2007.

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• In real life, people fumble their words. They repeat themselves and stare blankly off into space and don't listen properly to what other people are saying. I find that kind of speech fascinating but screenwriters never write dialogue like that because it doesn't look good on the page.

  Christopher Guest

  Real, Writing, Space

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• Acting is many things. Acting is playing lines, of course, but it's much more profound than that. Acting is truth-telling, and trying to find the truth in a human situation, which will be sketched out by a screenwriter with all the skill that a screenwriter can do; but in the end, that's just the map of the journey. The actor's job is to divine and embody the truth, and find it.

  Paul Greengrass

  Jobs, Journey, Skills

  "NYFF: Tom Hanks and Paul Greengrass Talk Captain Phillips". Interview, editorial.rottentomatoes.com. September 29, 2013.

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• How often do we use other people as screens upon which to project our obsessions? Our discontents, dreams, desires, and fears? Well, I always thought, often enough that its a wonder the whole waking world isn't simply viewed as an endless improvised film. One with as many screenwriters, producers, and directors as there are actors

  Bradford Morrow

  Dream, People, Desire

  Bradford Morrow (2011). “The Diviner's Tale”, p.150, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• When I was growing up in the south Indian city of Madras, there were only two political parties that mattered; one was run by a former matinee idol, and the other was run by his former screenwriter.

  Aravind Adiga

  Running, Growing Up, Party

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• A trap screenwriters can fall into is making scripts that are good reads, which doesn't necessarily mean it will make a good film.

  Peter Straughan

  Fall, Mean, Good Reads

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• Most aspiring screenwriters simply don't spend enough time choosing their concept. It's by far the most common mistake I see in spec scripts. The writer has lost the race right from the gate. Months - sometimes years - are lost trying to elevate a film idea that by its nature probably had no hope of ever becoming a movie.

  Terry Rossio

  Mistake, Race, Years

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• I think part of being a good screenwriter is being as concise as possible.

  Eric Roth

  Thinking, Concise

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• There’s a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Stealing, Term, Songwriters

  "Mann Crazy". Interview with Chris Willman, ew.com. January 7, 2000.

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• A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.

  Frank Miller

  Dog, Fire, Bunch

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• Too few journalists become screenwriters. I say to all the would-be screenwriters: Become journalists. And I’ll say to working journalists: Do not stay journalists. Become screenwriters.

  Nora Ephron

  Would Be, Journalist

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• Screenwriter Flacco nicely evokes the aftermath of San Francisco's 1906 earthquake in his fiction debut, a novel of suspense.

  William Bernhardt

  Earthquakes, San Francisco, Aftermath

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• I grew up in the Midwest; you don't know any screenwriters. It didn't seem like a realistic career possibility.

  Diablo Cody

  Careers, Midwest, Realistic

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• If you want to be a screenwriter, take an acting class to get a sense of what you're asking actors to do. Learning other skills will help you communicate with people and respect what they do.

  Tina Fey

  Class, Skills, People

  "Funny girl". www.seventeen.com. January 24, 2008.

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• I've been a screenwriter for twenty-five years. Every one of my books have been optioned for movies and I have written a few of those screenplays.

  Alice Hoffman

  Book, Years, Twenties

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• I've never been conscious of having any real career plan, and I do not have a wish-list of actors, directors, screenwriters, or cameramen I'm hoping to work with. Life, I feel, has a way of leading us to the right situations and people, or at least to interesting ones.

  Viggo Mortensen

  Real, Careers, People

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• From the onset of the 'Live-Read' series, we wanted to hit all the major writers and Woody Allen is simply one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. He has ability to match pathos and comedy and drama and then turn it all on a dime. If you're going to make a series based on dialogue, you can't find much better than Woody Allen.

  Jason Reitman

  Drama, Dimes, Comedy

  "Jason Reitman to re-create Woody Allen's 'Manhattan' in live reading" by Anthony Breznican, www.ew.com. November 09, 2012.

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• To have someone like Clint Eastwood come along and shoot your first draft as written is just any screenwriter's dream. And Clint is very straightforward. If it's good enough to get his attention, it's good enough to produce.

  J. Michael Straczynski

  Dream, Attention, Firsts

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• I guess you could say I'm a model slash hotelier slash actor slash screenwriter.

  Vikram Chatwal

  Actors, Models

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• We in the industry know that behind every successful screenwriter stands a woman. And behind her stands his wife.

  Groucho Marx

  Funny, Inspiration, Humor

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• I was in New York. Hitchcock was in California. He rang me to make a report on his progress and said, I'm having trouble. I've just sacked my second screenwriter

  Patricia Highsmith

  New York, California, Progress

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• "Admission" is Paul Weitz's movie. This is Karen Croner - the screenwriter's - movie. To have such a lovely role in such a beautifully written script offered to me, it's like elves made the shoes.

  Tina Fey

  Shoes, Lovely, Roles

  "Tina Fey, Movie Star? Not Quite Yet, She Says". "Morning Edition" with Steve Inskeep and Linda Wertheimer, www.npr.org. March 22, 2013.

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• Screenwriting is a terrible way to make a living and I always try to talk anyone out of it. Until you sit in a story meeting with studio executives with no particular ability or actors who haven't even graduated high school telling you exactly how to change your script, you haven't experienced what it's really like to be a screenwriter in Hollywood. Also, unlike novelists and playwrights, you don't own the copyright on your original material. It hurts when you sell a project you love and then suddenly the project you really cared about will never see the light of day.

  Amy Holden Jones

  Hurt, School, Light

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