“The last thing I want to see at the movies is a version of my reality. I don’t want to see art imitating life.”
~Fran Walsh
www.imdb.com/name/nm0909638
“It wasn’t until about the fifth draft of ‘sixth sense’ that I really began to figure it out. It was then that I realized he’s dead. It took me five more drafts to execute it right.”
~M. Night Shyamalan
www.imdb.com/name/nm0796117
“If you want to be a screenwriter, take an acting class to get a sense of what you’re asking actors to do. Learning other skills will help you communicate with people and respect what they do.”
~Tina Fey
www.imdb.com/name/nm0275486
“Writing a whole series was a crash course in screenwriting, which is a very different muscle to standup comedy writing.”
~Ronny Chieng
www.ronnychieng.com
“Let your characters talk to each other and do things. Spend time with them — they’ll tell you who they are and what they’re up to.”
~Greta Gerwig
www.imdb.com/name/nm1950086
“There’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you’re on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.”
~Margaret Atwood
margaretatwood.ca
“What’s the trick to writing anything at all? Discipline. And readers who are honest with you.”
~Sarah Polley
www.imdb.com/name/nm0001631
“Screenwriting is the most prized of all the cinematic arts. Actually, it isn’t, but it should be.”
~Hugh Laurie
www.hughlaurieblues.com
“It seems that the greatest difficulty is to find the end. Don’t try to find it, it’s there already.”
~Sophia Coppola
www.imdb.com/name/nm0001068
“Having spent a lot of time trying to figure out screenwriting, I do feel moved and I want to try to write good roles for women of every age.”
~Brit Marling
www.imdb.com/name/nm1779870
“I think if I’ve worked anything through with screenwriting it’s that I’m not going to be able to work anything through.”
~Charlie Kaufman
www.beingcharliekaufman.com
“When I was sixteen or seventeen, I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a playwright but everything I wrote, I thought was weak. And I can remember falling asleep in tears because I had no talent the way I wanted to have.”
~Francis Ford Coppola
www.imdb.com/name/nm0000338
