Screenplays Quotes - Page 3

• David Mamet we all know is a great screenplay writer and playwright and a great director. If you like him, you like him. If you hate him, you really hate him. He's someone who's into controversy, you know what I mean? That's David Mamet.

  Tom Hardy

  Hate, Mean, Directors

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• Normally you read a screenplay - and I read a lot of them - and the characters don't feel like people. They feel like plot devices or cliches or stereotypes.

  Joseph Gordon-Levitt

  Character, People, Plot

  "Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt". "The Tavis Smiley show" with Tavis Smiley, www.pbs.org. September 28, 2011.

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• I don't generate a storyline and then fill it out in the course of writing. The story actually generates in the course of the writing. It's one of the reasons I've never been comfortable doing screenplays, because in order to get the contract for the screenplay, you have to sit down and tell them what's going to happen.

  William Gibson

  Writing, Order, Down And

  Interview with Zack Handlen, www.avclub.com. September 7, 2010.

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• The secret to writing a screenplay is keeping your
  ass in the chair.

  Oliver Stone

  Writing, Secret, Ass

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• I've wanted to make a film about French youth since I went to Cannes with my first film 'Kids' in 1995 ... Scribe's screenplay is about French kids today, and the world today. Just like my films 'Kids' and 'Ken Park', this will be a movie like you have never seen before.

  Larry Clark

  Kids, World, Today

  FaceBook post by Larry Clark from Jul 19, 2013

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• I've come to view screenwriting assignments as playwriting grants, because they provide a considerable financial cushion. However, they can also be extremely time-consuming. Film projects tend to drag on and on, which takes me away from the theatre, and then they don't get made. At the same time, the screenplays that have come my way have been quite challenging, for the most part, and even enjoyable.

  Donald Margulies

  Views, Challenges, Theatre

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• . . usually, the biggest problems of adapting plays into screenplays is that they stick too close to the play, and I think film is a completely different medium. I think a novel is much closer to a film.

  Arthur Miller

  Thinking, Play, Different

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• L.A.: where there's never weather, and walking is a crime. L.A.: where the streetlights and palm trees go on forever, where darkness never comes, like a deal that never goes down, a meeting that's never taken. The City of Angels: where every cockroach has a screenplay and even the winos wear roller skates. It's that kind of town.

  Ian Shoales

  Taken, Angel, Cities

  Ian Shoales (1985). “I gotta go: the commentary of Ian Shoales”, Perigee

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• I always say when you write a book, you're a 'one-man band.' Whereas, when you finish a screenplay, it's just a sketch.

  Diablo Cody

  Book, Writing, Men

  "‘Young Adult’ Writer Diablo Cody: We Never Really Grow Up" by Margaret Bristol, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 09, 2011.

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• Although there was a screenplay, the actors never knew what questions I was going to ask them, and all of my character's voice-over narration and scenes were added after the fact.

  Griffin Dunne

  Character, Ghouls, Voice

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• I love making movies and hope to write my own screenplay someday and do some producing and be behind-the-scenes as well.

  Victoria Justice

  Writing, Behind The Scenes, Someday

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• I think I've had pretty good experiences for the most part with the people who have directed my screenplays.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Thinking, People, Good Experiences

  Interview with David Cronenberg, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 24, 2008.

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• . . I have written a couple of screenplays for studios, and each time has been less gratifying than the last. In my experience, they want no real representations of homosexuality, they want no complexity, they are terrified of ambiguity and unanswered questions - they don't know what they want, except that they want to make lots of money. The only freedom I've ever had as an artist has been in the theatre.

  Craig Lucas

  Couple, Real, Artist

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• What makes screenplays difficult are the things that require the most discipline and care and are just not seen by most people. I'm talking about movement - screenwriting is related to math and music, and if you zig here, you know you have to zag there. It's like the descriptions for a piece of music - you go fast or slow or with feeling. It's the same.

  Robert Towne

  Math, Talking, Discipline

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• The way you write a screenplay is that you close your eyes and run the movie in your head and then you write it down.

  Salman Rushdie

  Running, Writing, Eye

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• Usually if you read a screenplay, no matter who's writing it, the bad guy is always written as a one-dimensional bad guy.

  Mickey Rourke

  Writing, Guy, Matter

  The Tavis Smiley Show, www.pbs.org. November 10, 2011.

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• 'Juno' really changed things for me and I get a lot of screenplays come in now, but I like to self-generate and I like to kind of pursue my own ideas. And I think the more personal the better.

  Jason Reitman

  Thinking, Self, Ideas

  "Jason Reitman Takes Off with Up in the Air". movieweb.com. February 24,2010.

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• I already feel a bit annoyed at myself for writing screenplays. It's a bit, I don't know, model-singer-dancer-actress that went to a posh school. There's something too weirdly predictable about it.

  Emily Mortimer

  Writing, School, Dancer

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• If I’m feeling something, I have a lot of different ways to express it, you know? I can write an article about it. I can write a screenplay about it. I can act in someone’s thing.

  Josh Radnor

  Writing, Feelings, Different

  "Josh Radnor At Sundance: The ‘Afternoon Delight’ Star On His Post-‘How I Met Your Mother’ Plans". Interview with Mike Ryan, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 23, 2013.

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• In my office in Florida I have, I think, 30 manuscript piles around the room. Some are screenplays or comic books or graphic novels. Some are almost done. Some I'm rewriting. If I'm working with a co-writer, they'll usually write the first draft. And then I write subsequent drafts.

  James Patterson

  Book, Writing, Thinking

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• While I filmed the 'Walker, Texas Ranger' series for eight and a half years, I had never had much time to read, except for screenplays of the episodes.

  Chuck Norris

  Texas, Years, Eight

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• Every year I hear people complain that the quality of screenplays and movies is declining. In my opinion, the vast majority of scripts written - as well as most movies that are released - are not very original, well-written, or interesting. It has always been that way, and I think it always will be.

  Viggo Mortensen

  Thinking, Years, People

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• Doing TV shows helps me a lot in my screenplay writing and filmmaking, especially since my TV shows are in different formats: comedy sketches, talk shows, debate programs, art variety shows, quiz shows. These enable me to meet interesting people with interesting stories and to learn about interesting subjects, all of which I can reflect into film.

  Takeshi Kitano

  Art, Writing, Tv Shows

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Really, when I write a book I'm the only one I have to please. That's the beauty of writing a book instead of a screenplay.

  Elmore Leonard

  Book, Writing, Please

  "Elmore Leonard’s Secret: 'Clean Living, and a Fast Outfield'". Interview with Jon Wiener, lareviewofbooks.org. August 20, 2013.

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• I do have some theatrical background. I've written plays and seen plays and read plays. But I also read novels. One thing I don't read is screenplays.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Play, Novel, Backgrounds

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