Screenwriters Quotes - Page 7

• I make my living now as a screenwriter! Which I’m surprised and horrified to find myself saying, but I don’t think I can support myself as a playwright at this point. I don’t think anybody does.

  Tony Kushner

  Thinking, Support, Doe

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• I think part of being a good screenwriter is being as concise as possible.

  Eric Roth

  Thinking, Concise

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• There’s a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Stealing, Term, Songwriters

  "Mann Crazy". Interview with Chris Willman, ew.com. January 7, 2000.

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• A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.

  Frank Miller

  Dog, Fire, Bunch

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• Too few journalists become screenwriters. I say to all the would-be screenwriters: Become journalists. And I’ll say to working journalists: Do not stay journalists. Become screenwriters.

  Nora Ephron

  Would Be, Journalist

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• Every adaptation requires that the screenwriter make difficult choices - and in particular, difficult cuts.

  David Benioff

  Cutting, Difficult Choices, Adaptation

  "Web Access... David Benioff". www.bbc.co.uk.

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• I could be just a writer very easily. I am not a writer. I am a screenwriter, which is half a filmmaker... But it is not an art form, because screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.

  Paul Schrader

  Art, Writing, Half

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• You get spoiled as a novelist because you get to be the director and the editor, and you play all the parts, but as a screenwriter, you are a bit down the ladder.

  Jo Nesbo

  Editors, Play, Novelists

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• I probably could be a world-class screenwriter by now if I had spent the kind of work I devote on Comedy Death-Ray to that. But I do okay, in that regard. I mean, my stuff gets bought, so it's all right.

  Scott Aukerman

  Mean, Class, Rays

  "Scott Aukerman of Comedy Death-Ray". Interview with Kyle Ryan, www.avclub.com. June 22, 2010.

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• If you keep thinking about putting on a conference or being a Hollywood screenwriter, and you find the idea terrifies but intrigues you, it's probably a worthy endeavor for you. You grow (and thrive!) by doing what excites you and what scares you everyday, not by trying to find your passion.

  Derek Sivers

  Passion, Thinking, Ideas

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• Truth like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold screenwriter of Dead Poets' Society.

  Tom Schulman

  Truth, Dead Poets Society, Feet

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• The eternal challenge for screenwriter adapters is figuring out how to make something work on screen, when so much of what made it work in the book were the thoughts of the character, and obviously wanting to avoid voiceover.

  David Benioff

  Book, Character, Challenges

  "The Surprising Connection Between Game of Thrones and Monty Python". Interview with Jim Windolf, www.vanityfair.com. March 24, 2014.

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• [As a screenwriter] I have a sense of exile from thought, a nostalgia of the quiet room and balanced mind. I am a writer, and there comes a time when that which I write has to belong to me, has to be written alone and in silence, with no one looking over my shoulder, no one telling me a better way to write it. It doesn't have to be great writing, it doesn't even have to be terribly good. It just has to be mine.

  Raymond Chandler

  Writing, Silence, Mind

  "A Qualified Farewell". Essay by Raymond Chandler (early 1950's), published in "The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler" edited by Frank MacShane, 1976.

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• As screenwriters, we struggle with our own success. We have wallpapered our world and now we can't get anyone to notice the picture we just hung.

  Paul Schrader

  Struggle, Our World, Hung

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

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• It's funny because when I was growing up, I was really into science fiction and fantasy as a kid. And, when I first became a screenwriter, I ended up really just doing historical drama and non-fiction based stuff, like Band of Brothers and stuff that didn't get made, but was also non-fiction.

  John Orloff

  Brother, Growing Up, Drama

  Source: collider.com

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• You know, I used to not understand fashion, a lot of it, but I completely understood being a playwright or a screenwriter and suddenly having an actor say your words and making them come to life. That I can understand. Finally, I'm starting to understand this.

  Reese Witherspoon

  Fashion, Actors, Used

  Vogue magazine Interview, November 2008.

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• Not a word of my writing has ever been changed by another person's hands, and I don't think many screenwriters can say that.

  Brian K. Vaughan

  Writing, Thinking, Hands

  "AICN COMICS!! @$$Holes Interview With Brian K. Vaughan!!". Interview with Cormorant, www.aintitcool.com. June 22, 2004.

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• Screenwriters get paid a hell of a lot more money but their level of frustration seems to be so high that I don't want that.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Frustration, Want, Levels

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

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• The Buccaneers was an Edith Wharton novel, and she never finished it, and a screenwriter adapted it for television.

  James Frain

  Television, Buccaneers, Novel

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• I was just starting out, trying to become a screenwriter, and I became the Austin slam champion three times. For a nerdy, kind of a socially awkward guy, that did wonders for my self esteem.

  Ernest Cline

  Self Esteem, Guy, Champion

  "Author Ernie Cline Was Told Video Games Would Rot His Brain, But Who Holds the High Score Now?". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. July 10, 2015.

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• A great trick that I learned having worked as a screenwriter for many years, the way screenwriters work, is they break the project down into three-act structure: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3. I think that is a great way to break down any project, whether it's a new business or anything at all.

  Steven Pressfield

  Thinking, Years, Way

  "Special Interview with Steven Pressfield and Ishita Gupta". "Marketing Over Coffee" podcast with John Wall, www.marketingovercoffee.com. May 16, 2011.

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• People kept passing our [ with Robert Ben Garant] script around, and suddenly we had this reputation as screenwriters, which we're not - we're sketch comedy guys.

  Thomas Lennon

  People, Guy, Scripts

  Source: www.gq.com

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• Comic books themselves are getting more literate. And there are people who are screenwriters and television writers and novelists who are writing for the comics, for some reason, they love doing it and some of the art work in the comics, I mean it rivals anything you'll see hanging on the walls of museums, they're illustrations more than drawings and all the people are discovering this and they're turning on to it.

  Stan Lee

  Art, Wall, Book

  Source: movieweb.com

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• Strange - I'm not much of a film person. I love watching films, but they don't stay with me the way books do. Stranger still, because my husband is a screenwriter!

  Dani Shapiro

  Husband, Book, Way

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• "Admission" is Paul Weitz's movie. This is Karen Croner - the screenwriter's - movie. To have such a lovely role in such a beautifully written script offered to me, it's like elves made the shoes.

  Tina Fey

  Shoes, Lovely, Roles

  "Tina Fey, Movie Star? Not Quite Yet, She Says". "Morning Edition" with Steve Inskeep and Linda Wertheimer, www.npr.org. March 22, 2013.

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