Screenwriting Quotes - Page 5

• I've taught both screenwriting and playwriting, and playwriting is both much harder and much more rewarding. One can teach people how to tell a story in cinematic ways, but theater is a much more elusive craft.

  David Ives

  People, Theatre, Stories

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• There are three things that are important for a film. Number one is story, number two is story, number three is story. Good actors can save a bad script and make it bearable, but good actors can't make a bad script good - they can just make it bearable.

  Mark Strickson

  Two, Numbers, Important

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• I guess I considered myself just sort of a sketch comedian, you know? Actual screenwriting hadn't really occurred to me as a viable job - I didn't really know anything about it.

  Thomas Lennon

  Jobs, Comedian, Knows

  "The GQA: Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant". Interview with Sean Fennessey, www.gq.com. July 7, 2011.

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• If all that's going on in your scenes is what's going on in your scenes, think about it a long time.

  William Goldman

  Thinking, Long, Scene

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• Music, I find, gets you out of a trap [when screenwriting], because it speaks to your emotions directly, it's an abstract thing, it's not concerned with plot or story. And so music really helps - often I'll listen to the music and just write anything, just to get through.

  Tony Grisoni

  Writing, Plot, Stories

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• I definitely divide my life into decades. Almost every ten years, something in my work life has changed. My twenties were my journalistic phase, then there was my screenwriting phase, then I became a director, then I started doing some plays.

  Nora Ephron

  Years, Play, Twenties

  Interview with Kathryn Borel, believermag.com. March 1, 2012.

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• [on the reason for his seven-year hiatus in direction] My son Aditya made Mohabbatein, which took a lot of time and energy. Then we started looking for a script for me to direct. Nothing seemed to excite us both. There's a complete bankruptcy of screenwriting in our cinema. I wanted a very earthy and Indian subject. I was tired of the promos on television. With semi-clad girls, they all looked the same. Of course Dhoom has them too. But I'd personally not make a film like that.

  Yash Chopra

  Girl, Tired, Son

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

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• I'm generally somebody who hopes for the best. It's not what one ought to do in my line of work [screenwriting], but it is what I do.

  Jonathan Tropper

  Lines, Hoping For The Best, Ought

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I have no problems or issues with screenwriting in general.

  Bret Easton Ellis

  Issues, Problem, No Problem

  Interview with Scott Tobias, www.avclub.com. April 22, 2009.

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• I'm from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of screenwriting. I just like to preserve what works and ignore what doesn't work.

  Andrew Dominik

  School, Broke, Preserves

  "Director Andrew Dominik Talks KILLING THEM SOFTLY, His Desire to Release a New Cut of JESSE JAMES, His Marilyn Monroe Biopic BLONDE, and More". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. November 29, 2012.

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• I've often said, not totally jokingly, that screenwriting doesn't really qualify as real writing at all. You don't string sentences into paragraphs. You don't maintain a constant breath, or create internal rhythms, or even develop a fully-formed thought. The camera does all that work for you!

  Jonathan Raymond

  Real, Writing, Cameras

  "Jon Raymond’s Californian Epic". Interview with Christopher Bollen, www.interviewmagazine.com. February 1, 2017.

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• It's kind of liberating to be able to bring your own ideas to things, but it's also a lot of pressure, it's like screenwriting on your feet.

  John C. Reilly

  Feet, Ideas, Pressure

  "Interview: John C. Reilly (Talladega Nights)". Interview with Devin Faraci, trouble.city. August 2, 2006.

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• Once in a while there were things in screenwriting that taught me things for fiction. But there's nothing in screenwriting that teaches you anything for the theater. I'm not sure I've ever fully appreciated before how different a form theater is.

  Joan Didion

  Different, Appreciated, Teach

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I was a screenwriting major in college, and really wanted to do that after I graduated, but there are no job listings for that, as we all know. I had many classmates that made it in the business, but stand-up comedy was my way in, and my first film 'Sleepwalk with Me' was based on those autobiographical experiences.

  Mike Birbiglia

  Jobs, College, Way

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• I came into screenwriting from an odd direction, because the first screenplay that I read was and is better as writing than the top one percent of literary novels.

  William Monahan

  Writing, Firsts, Odd

  Source: collider.com

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• I thought The Big Short deserved a nomination because Adam MacKay is one of the best filmmakers. A lot of what he does deals in comedy and he co-produces with Will Farrell, people don't really give it the credit that it deserves. I think that they actually do great screenwriting and they make great films, very entertaining.

  Bun B

  Thinking, People, Giving

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• Few literary depictions of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake match the intensity and visceral power of those in Flacco's gripping first novel. The author's screenwriting talent shines in this story of the earth's destructive power and humanity's moral depravity. The emerging maniacal personality, revealed in increasingly gruesome and venomous detail, rivals the Ripper.Dickens meets Hannibal Lecter. Brace yourself.

  William Bernhardt

  Earthquakes, San Francisco, Personality

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• Novelists who get shitty about screenwriting invariably can't do it, or they can't hack it in the world of what's really, in truth, very bold and very public enterprise.

  William Monahan

  Novelists, World, Enterprise

  Source: collider.com

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• Fiction and screenwriting blend for me. I feel like being a TV writer/screenwriter has definitely made my fiction writing better, although I have less time to do it.

  Nick Antosca

  Writing, Fiction, Tvs

  Source: therumpus.net

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• For me, as a writer who comes from quite a naturalistic tradition, British screenwriting is quite delicate, quite small, and rarified in a way.

  Simon Beaufoy

  Way, Tradition, British

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• I just always remember myself as the teenager with questions about movies and screenwriting. I would hope that there was somebody out there who would answer those questions, and so, if I can take a few minutes to do it, I will. It's not threatening for us. We're not being stalked, so it's easier.

  John August

  Teenager, Answers, Remember

  Source: collider.com

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• In terms of screenwriting adaptations it's trying to cut out stuff that's extraneous, without doing damage to the original piece, because you owe a debt of some respect to the original author. That's why it was bought.

  Rod Serling

  Cutting, Trying, Pieces

  Source: www.rodserling.com

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• Initially I only decided to try and write a novel because I wasn't getting enough screenwriting work. It wasn't a long-held ambition, and certainly the idea came first.

  Stef Penney

  Writing, Ambition, Ideas

  Stef Penney (2008). “The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel”, p.385, Simon and Schuster

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• Screenwriting is an opportunity to fly first class, be treated like a celebrity, sit around the pool and be betrayed.

  Ian Mcewan

  Opportunity, Class, Betrayed

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• There is no point in having sharp images when you've fuzzy ideas.

  Jean-Luc Godard

  Ideas, Directors, Fuzzy

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