Screenwriting Quotes

• The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement

  Raymond Chandler

  Writing, Challenges, Movement

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.119, Univ of California Press

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• All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

  Robert McKee

  Writing, Discipline, Drill Sergeant

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• Screenwriting is the most prized of all the cinematic arts. Actually, it isn't, but it should be.

  Hugh Laurie

  Art, Directors, Should

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Moving, Writing, Littles

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Whatever you do in terms of telling a story, the most important thing that you can define is who you are.

  John Patrick Shanley

  Important, Stories, Term

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• All drama is conflict. Without conflict, there is no action. Without action, there is no character. Without character, there is no story. And without story, there is no screenplay.

  Syd Field

  Drama, Character, Cinema

  Syd Field (2009). “Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay”, p.17, Delta

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• You know, my problem with most screenwriting is it is a blueprint. It's like they're afraid to write the damn thing. And I'm a writer. That's what I do. I want it to be written. I want it to work on the page first and foremost. So when I'm writing the script, I'm not thinking about the viewer watching the movie. I'm thinking about the reader reading the script.

  Quentin Tarantino

  Reading, Writing, Thinking

  "Pulp And Circumstance: Tarantino Rewrites History". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. August 27, 2009.

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• Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"

  David Mamet

  Three, Answers, Want

  "Crossings: David Mamet’s Work in Different Genres and Media". Book by Johan Callens, 2009.

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  As a writer, I demand the right to write any character in the world that I want to write. I demand the right to be them, I demand the right to think them and I demand the right to tell the truth as I see they are.

  Quentin Tarantino

  Truth, Writing, Character

  "The Quentin Tarantino race debate isn't black and white" by Steve Rose, www.theguardian.com. October 13, 2015.

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• Screenwriting is not an artform, it is a punishment from God.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Writing, Punishment

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• Give me a good script, and I'll be a hundred times better as a director.

  George Cukor

  Giving, Directors, Scripts

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• I find that screenwriting is at best kind of a hackwork in some ways.

  John Milius

  Way, Kind

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• If a story doesn't give you a hard-on in the first couple of scenes, throw it in the goddamned garbage.

  Samuel Fuller

  Couple, Giving, Garbage

  Samuel Fuller, Christa Fuller, Jerome Rudes (2002). “A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking”, Knopf

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• The script is what you`ve dreamed up - this is what it should be. The film is what you end up with.

  George Lucas

  Directors, Scripts, Film

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The script, I always believe, is the foundation of everything.

  Ewan McGregor

  Believe, Foundation, Directors

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. March 7, 2012.

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• I want to get off with the screenwriting.

  Obie Trice

  Want

  "Obie Trice: No Gimmicks". Interview with Jigsaw Features, allhiphop.com. April 22, 2003.

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• A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

  Thomas Mann

  Writing, People, Difficult

  "Essays of Three Decades". Book by Thomas Mann, 1942.

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  To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script.

  Alfred Hitchcock

  Directors, Three, Needs

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• A dramatic writer should never tell anything he can show.

  Nunnally Johnson

  Dramatic, Should, Shows

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• A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.

  Richard Bach

  Perseverance, Writing, Editing

  Richard Bach (2012). “A Gift of Wings”, p.9, Dell

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• Audiences are harder to please if you're just giving them effects, but they're easy to please if it's a good story.

  Steven Spielberg

  Motivational, Giving, Directors

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• Scripts are what matter... if you get those foundations wrong, then you absolutely don’t stand a shot.

  Tim Bevan

  What Matters, Foundation, Scripts

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• I usually write very few stage directions. I think a lot of that is a waste of time. The art of screenwriting is in its terseness, saying a lot with a little. I have no patience when I read a script where the writer describes this guy and what he's wearing and his glasses and his hair.

  Scott Frank

  Art, Writing, Thinking

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• I'm very lucky. I actually like screenwriting. I rarely feel a sense of doom going to my desk.

  Simon Beaufoy

  Lucky, Desks, Doom

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• [Screenwriting] is no more complicated than old French torture chambers, I think. It's about as simple as that.

  James L. Brooks

  Simple, Thinking, Complicated

  "Dreams on Spec". Documentary, 20007.

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