Screenplays Quotes · Page 3

Most film directors do not come up with their own subjects or write their own screenplays.

— Thomas Harrison

The novel's not organized like a screenplay. If you shot the novel, you'd have a twelve-hour movie.

— Ray Bradbury

There's nothing more important in making movies than the screenplay.

— Richard Attenborough

The whole process of making movies and writing screenplays is visceral and intuitive.

— Ridley Scott

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

— Grant Heslov

The first thing to look out for after your first big success are drugs and screenplays.

— Richard Price

I write a number of screenplays, and I've never really come up with a part for a movie star.

— Andrew Dominik

I really just love to open a blank document and spew, whereas with a screenplay I have to be more judicious.

— Diablo Cody

The idea of directing was something that I always had in the back of my mind, and writing as well. I began…

— Charles Martin Smith

I've always approached screenplays and so forth with, "How would it really happen?" Not "What's the movie version?" but "What's the real-life…

— Alexander Payne

I can't imagine any director directing a screenplay of mine, because the great directors all have very personal styles, and the ones…

— Woody Allen

I read every screenplay that was being sent to the other directors. None were being sent to me, but I was reading…

— Rupert Sanders

To me, the ultimate crime in an adaptation is the crime of reverence. A novel is one form of media, a screenplay…

— Christopher McQuarrie

I write the occasional poem. I think my dabbling in poetry makes me better at screenplays. Poetry teaches the value of condensing,…

— Kamal Haasan

At the moment, I'm toying with a new idea for a book, but fully engaged with writing screenplays, so the book idea…

— Rose Tremain

The movies are fun, but I'm a novelist. In many ways, screenwriting is much easier than writing novels. I find screenplays twenty…

— Nicholas Sparks

I was in Los Angeles making 'Dead Again' and the producer, Lindsay Doran , asked me if I'd be interested in adapting…

— Emma Thompson

Actually, screenplays were much more detailed than what I did in the book In the book I had to invent a style…

— Paul Auster

What I found interesting writing a screenplay as opposed to writing a novel is not the obvious thing, which is having to…

— Salman Rushdie

The graphic novel? I love comics and so, yes. I don't think we talked about that. We weren't influenced necessarily by graphic…

— Todd Farmer

I have written screenplays. Most recently for Errol Morris, who was thinking about doing his first fiction movie, and with a young…

— Jim Shepard

I'd done table reads for my own screenplays, and I always thought they were so much fun. Why couldn't we do these…

— Jason Reitman

In terms of it being a first screenplay, literally, my hat is off to him [Wally Pfister]. I didn't see any virgin…

— Johnny Depp

David Mamet we all know is a great screenplay writer and playwright and a great director. If you like him, you like…

— Tom Hardy

I've written a couple screenplays and half-finished plays.

— Christopher Meloni

To me, the screenplay only becomes the Bible of the film after the actors have been cast.

— Dito Montiel

After I sold my screenplay adaptation of 'Rain Fall' to Sony Pictures, I had no more creative involvement,

— Barry Eisler

Most of screenplay writing is deciding which voices you want to listen to and take on board.

— Abi Morgan

Most screenplays depend primarily on the vision of a director.

— Tom Skerritt

I don't think screenplay writing is the same as writing - I mean, I think it's blueprinting.

— Robert Altman

There are a lot of bad screenplays so if you write a good screenplay people are going to respond to it.

— Quentin Tarantino

Film isn't a meritocracy; there's no system ensuring the best screenplays get produced. It's a hustle.

— Jon Ronson

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

— Philippe Falardeau

I set out to write a screenplay but, since my early 20s, had dreamed of writing a novel.

— Graeme Simsion

You use simple brushstrokes in a screenplay for things over which you would take much greater pains in a novel.

— Richard Russo

If you're going to have someone win because of their story, go write a screenplay about your life.

— Miley Cyrus

I should probably bequeath the copyrights to my screenplay for Spies Like Us, just in case.

— Nathan Hale

On the one occasion where I did try writing a screenplay, I found the rewriting just unendurable.

— Alan Moore

I was never conscious of my screenplays having any acts. It's all bullshit.

— John Milius

I've written about 15 screenplays and they all sold - they were all sold on pitches.

— Bruce Vilanch