Shane Black Quotes - Page 2

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• I think it's very admirable, in a superhero movie, to be able to take a few risks.

  Shane Black

  Thinking, Superhero, Risk

  "Comic-Con: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Shane Black and Kevin Feige Talk IRON MAN 3, How THE AVENGERS Impacts the Film, Iron Patriot and More". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. July 15, 2012.

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• I think about the audience in the sense that I serve as my own audience. I have to please myself the way, if I saw the movie in a theater, I would be pleased. Do I think about catering to an audience? No.

  Shane Black

  Thinking, Would Be, Way

  "The Two Hollywoods: The Screenwriters; Shane Black; Harmony Korine". www.nytimes.com. November 16, 1997.

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• I do think the challenge, in a way for me, is to write a narrative film and when you finish watching it you feel like it's a collage. You tell the narrative, you tell the story, but you feel like you've created this tapestry. But it also has a shape, a story. So I think there's a middle ground that I try to strike... away from where everyone else seems ready to go, which is, setup, payoff. You know, He's afraid of water, oh, and at the end he's swimming in water - oh, my God. I hate that stuff.

  Shane Black

  Hate, Writing, Swimming

  "The Two Hollywoods: The Screenwriters; Shane Black; Harmony Korine". Interview with Harmony Korine, www.nytimes.com. November 16, 1997.

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• I think a lot of people - by the time I came back with a script I liked, which took me many years, they'd forgotten who I was. Doors all the time are slamming, you meet friends that you've had for years, you'd go to the studio, and they'd say things to indicate clearly that they hadn't read it, or that they'd had their assistant sort of skim it. They wouldn't buy it. They wouldn't make it.

  Shane Black

  Thinking, People, Forgotten

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• The Nice Guys movie was the first time in my career where what I wrote on the pages is on the screen. I'm more proud of it than anything else I've done. It is effectively what I wanted. If this movie's bad, it's my fault. It's not somebody else who changed or censored or edited it. This is the stuff I wanted, and that's what's on the screen, and if you don't like it, it's my bad.

  Shane Black

  Nice, Guy, Done

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• You can win as long as you chose your battles. You can win more arguments then you might think as a writer, even though you legally have no recourse, and your script can get muddied and altered in any way possible. You can use reason, logic, and passion to argue persuasively for a case in your favor. So what I've learned is to just basically not buckle - not be belligerent, not be angry, not throw fits, but just not buckle.

  Shane Black

  Passion, Thinking, Winning

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I wrote all the time, but the idea of doing it professionally seemed like pie in the sky. Who gets paid to write? I grew up in Pittsburgh, so it wasn't really a notion that a lot of people pursue.

  Shane Black

  Writing, People

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• I wanted at one point to act, which is a weird thing for men to want to do. It's a very vain profession.

  Shane Black

  Men, Vain, Profession

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• It was like a frat house for film geeks, the Pad O' Guys. That's what being at UCLA afforded me. So when one of us had some success - in this case, my pal Fred Dekker - he would reach down the ladder and help me up a rung, give my work to his agent to pass around to see if anyone liked it.

  Shane Black

  Giving, House, Guy

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• I have no power, and that's what's so humbling.

  Shane Black

  Humbling

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• What I've learned being a writer is to just basically not buckle - not be belligerent, not be angry, not throw fits. Though there are times where you have to stand up and yell. If I've got to throw a chair, I'll throw a chair. There was a meekness about me when I started, and I think the meekness has sort of evaporated. I hope that it's left behind a more passionate person, not a meaner person. So I guess that's what I've learned.

  Shane Black

  Thinking, Passionate, Fit

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• I think the most important thing is to, without belligerence, stand up for what want. Argue compellingly if someone tries to change your script.

  Shane Black

  Thinking, Important, Trying

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• The spotlight was on me. I pretended it wasn't, but it was, and for every wrong reason. It was all about money, it was all about my supposed competition with Joe Eszterhas over who'd be the highest-paid screenwriter. I didn't care. I just wanted to write stories, try to become a better writer, improve my style, change genres, even try new things. I didn't like action so much any more.

  Shane Black

  Writing, Competition, Style

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• It really started after The Long Kiss Goodnight sold for just a sinful amount of money. People were angry that I took the money. People offer you $4 million for a script - what are you going to say? "No, I'd rather sell it for $100,000"? But it engendered so much anger, I lost friends over it. And no one talked about the creative content of anything I did any more. They all just assumed I was this guy with a formula, a hack formula.

  Shane Black

  Kissing, Long, People

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• When you only have $15 million, you have to talk about something interesting. You can't just cut to a helicopter exploding.

  Shane Black

  Cutting, Interesting, Something Interesting

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Going to UCLA, as far as I'm concerned, afforded me two things. One was the advantage of meeting friends and getting to know a group of guys I hung out with, was chummy with. All of us eventually had success with film. Making films, cutting our own little movies together, 3 in the morning going out and shooting stuff, finding gels that people had thrown away, making our own lights. It was like a frat house for film geeks, the Pad O' Guys. That's what being at UCLA afforded me.

  Shane Black

  Morning, Cutting, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I think it's an obligation to make a movie full, so you have to see it twice to get all the moments.

  Shane Black

  Thinking, Moments, Obligation

  Source: collider.com

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• I wanted at one point to act, which is a weird thing for men to want to do. It's a very vain profession. I don't mind women who want to act. That's fine. It's odd that men want to act, in that there's still a degree of vanity associated with it. It's like, "Put on some makeup, make me look good. Okay, now I'm going to roll my shoulder." Part of me still feels like, "Wow, that's weird for a man to do."

  Shane Black

  Makeup, Men, Mind

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Every director should take an acting class. At least one. You know, you panic with actors. It's like, "Okay, this is back in college, I know how to talk to these guys. I know their vocabulary, and I get what they're saying back to me." So basically to learn the vernacular of acting, that's very important.

  Shane Black

  College, Guy, Important

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• People would say, "Well yeah, if I wrote action films, if I wrote the trash that you write, I could make millions too. But I want to write my real movie about these Guatemalan immigrants, and how they hid under a truck for 300 miles." And that's fine. I'd love to make that film too, but to dismiss everything I did just because it's action seems wrong.

  Shane Black

  Real, Writing, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• The other thing being at UCLA was just being in California and around the movie business. Which I honestly believe, and I've told this to screenwriters, you have to do. You have to be there in order to write or direct movies.

  Shane Black

  Believe, Writing, Honestly

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• I had my group of friends, and they stayed my group of friends, they were good about that. We all started to succeed at the same time, so that sort of took the curse off it. I didn't have a bunch of people scowling at me and being potentially jealous. I just had good friends who I was able to help, and they helped me. Yet it eventually came to feel debilitating.

  Shane Black

  Jealous, Good Friend, People

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• For years I was doing the excruciating weightlifting of writing scripts - but then I stayed thin and someone else got all the muscles.

  Shane Black

  Writing, Years, Scripts

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• I don't mind women who want to act. That's fine. It's odd that men want to act, in that there's still a degree of vanity associated with it.

  Shane Black

  Men, Vanity, Mind

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. November 9, 2005.

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• I hate 'The Professional.' It's one of the worst action/adventure movies ever made.

  Shane Black

  Hate, Adventure, Action

  "Wright vs. Black II". www.esquire.com. April 30, 2007.

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