Screenplays Quotes - Page 11

• I just admire people like Woody Allen, who every year writes an original screenplay. It's astonishing. I always wished that I could do that.

  Francis Ford Coppola

  Writing, Years, People

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• I had gone to the bookstore, and while I hadn't bought any books on how to write a screenplay, I'd bought a couple of scripts so I could see how the formatting works. I just needed to know how a Hollywood screenplay looked on the page, which was something I was totally unfamiliar with.

  Diablo Cody

  Couple, Book, Writing

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• The time it would take me to write a screenplay it would take me the time to make two films. I would rather make the movies and I'm a better moviemaker than I a would be writer.

  Ridley Scott

  Writing, Two, Would Be

  Source: collider.com

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• When I set out to write a screenplay, I have in my mind a beginning and an end but that end part continually changes as I start to write the middle. That way by the time the screenplay is finished I have taken myself and my audience from a familiar beginning point through the story to an unfamiliar ending point.

  Christian Keiber

  Taken, Writing, Mind

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• I see everything visually. It's very visual for me. And so I think, from a plotting standpoint or what have you, there's obviously a certain amount of internal thinking that goes on in a novel (that) you can't do...in a screenplay. But I think, pacing wise, my novels move quickly because (they aren't overly) descriptive.

  Michael Landon, Jr.

  Wise, Moving, Thinking

  Source: www.beliefnet.com

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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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• Although I write screenplays, I don't think I'm a very good writer. I'm very interested in studying cultures and social issues, but as an academic I don't think I would have been too successful.

  George Lucas

  Writing, Successful, Thinking

  "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

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• [Success] always starts with the material; it always starts with the truth and honesty of the characters that you read in the screenplay and that's rarely something that can be remedied if it's simply not there by the time you shoot the film. Thank God we had that.

  Leonardo DiCaprio

  Honesty, Character, Thank God

  "Revolutionary Road : Leonardo DiCaprio interview". Cinema.com Interview, cinema.com.

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• The idea of directing was something that I always had in the back of my mind, and writing as well. I began to write screenplays when I was in my 20's.

  Charles Martin Smith

  Writing, Ideas, Mind

  Source: collider.com

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• I'm attracted to short screenplays. Nobody really wants a film to be over two hours, or at least I don't.

  Alexander Payne

  Two, Want, Film

  Source: deadline.com

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• It's intuitive in terms of when I read a piece of material or I hear about a project. I'm a writer, so I've written movies. I've read at this point thousands and thousands and thousands of screenplays. So if something gets me, then I don't ignore that.

  Matt Damon

  Pieces, Projects, Term

  "Actor-screenwriter-producer Matt Damon, Part 1". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org.

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• Writing a screenplay is like writing a big puzzle, and so the hardest part, I think, is getting the story.

  Grant Heslov

  Writing, Thinking, Stories

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• If youre writing a screenplay from scratch, it involves a lot of creation.

  Philippe Falardeau

  Writing, Scratches, Creation

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• We now live in a world both in film and television where everything is based on something. You point out, "Star Wars" was an original screenplay, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," an original screenplay, "Ghostbusters" an original screenplay, "Back to the Future." All these things that people love were original ideas many years ago.

  Alfred Gough

  Stars, War, Years

  "‘Into the Badlands’ Creators On Attempting Something That’s Never Been Tried on TV". Interview with Liz Shannon Miller, www.indiewire.com. November 18, 2015.

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• Screenplay is the toughest form of writing for me, because you need to be in present tense. You need to be describing things as they occur.

  Guillermo del Toro

  Writing, Needs, Form

  "In our new feature, Guillermo Del Toro takes us through his biggest firsts". Interview with Todd VanDerWerff, www.avclub.com. November 21, 2013.

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• I started writing stories when I was 9 or 10. I wrote my first screenplay-type document when I was 14.

  Cary Fukunaga

  Writing, Stories, Firsts

  Interview with Michael Moore, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 2, 2015.

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• To be honest, I don't usually do very much research, especially if I'm working with a director who also wrote the screenplay. They've usually done a tonne of research. And they'll tell you about it from their perspective which is better than doing your own research.

  Christina Ricci

  Perspective, Directors, Done

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• I counted it up once. I think I have written 45 full screenplays. Of those, maybe 15 have been shot, in some form. That's a pretty good track record, but it's not 100%. It is frustrating that, as a screenwriter, I've seen all those movies and they don't exist in the real world. They're juts inside my head and on those pages.

  John August

  Real, Thinking, Track

  Source: collider.com

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• If I get lucky and I can choose, I would always choose a really good story and screenplay, even if I don't know the director. If there's a good screenplay, there's a chance that something good is going to happen.

  Ayelet Zurer

  Stories, Directors, Lucky

  Source: collider.com

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• If you don't have a brilliant screenplay, then you either have amazing actors who give you the chance to improve whatever is on the page, or an interesting director who has enough faith in the project that they can carry it through and get it somewhere. One of those factors needs to happen. If not, it's sad.

  Ayelet Zurer

  Giving, Interesting, Directors

  Source: collider.com

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• There is no screenplay-writing recipe that guarantees your cake will rise.

  Robert McKee

  Writing, Cake, Guarantees

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• I'm currently writing a screenplay that I haven't started yet.

  Serena Williams

  Writing, Havens

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• When you only hang out with performers, you start to feel like movies and TV and comedy is everything. Especially being in LA, where it feels like you walk into a coffee shop and you see 15 laptops with screenplays being written.

  Gillian Jacobs

  Coffee, Laptops, Tvs

  Source: www.indiewire.com

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• I look at the film without any music or sound. I try to grasp the story from the screenplay. I try to write to the novel or book if there is one. I try to create music that's honest and true to my heart for the story.

  Howard Shore

  Book, Writing, Heart

  Source: collider.com

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• If I know what my finale is when I'm writing a screenplay, then I don't always have to chart out every scene before that. I can adequately find my way. I'm experienced enough to do that.

  David Twohy

  Writing, Way, Enough

  Source: collider.com

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