A criminal has a kind of freedom by definition that the ordinary citizen doesn't have. The criminal's able to realize himself in ways not available to the general population, if you want to put it that way. They're interesting and… — William Monahan Copy Share Image
Doing crime films...maybe it's to some extent a matter of taste. Certainly my first novel had a criminal element and was about the similarity of criminals and artists. Pretextually, it was sort of a money bag thriller. But it was… — William Monahan Copy Share Image
“I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What God desires is here [mind] and here [heart] and what you decide to do every day… — William Monahan Copy Share
When I was a kid in London there was just something about the light and there's something about the way London went onto film… — William Monahan Copy Share Image
I think the only real referent for anybody writing drama is probably Hamlet. You have the most extreme tragic drama, this sort of blood-boltered… — William Monahan Copy Share Image
If you need someone to come out of the sewer with a wire you don't hire someone who needs laborious collective instruction. You let… — William Monahan Copy Share Image
In reviewing films, people get quite liberal about saying "the script" this and "the script" that, when they've never read the script any more… — William Monahan Copy Share Image
The era I love most is the Federal period, just after the Revolution and the formation of the United States. The birth of America as a nation coincided with the Romantic era and I've always been thoroughly into the Romantics and I've always been thoroughly into America, particularly at the time when it was a brand new idea, when it… — William Monahan Copy Share
You know a shooter when you see it. At least the creative people do. If a picture isn't obvious in the first draft you're… — William Monahan Copy Share Image
If you see, as I do, in edited film, you're going to end up as a director. — William Monahan Copy Share Image
I wanted to do London Boulevard because I saw the potential of a story about two people who need each other desperately, who love… — William Monahan Copy Share Image
Dialogue is used to reveal not what we want to say, but what we are trying to hide. — William Monahan Copy Share Image
Poetry died as a commercial form and then it died as a serious art form. No one serious touches it. It used to be that somebody like F. Scott Fitzgerald could make a high middle-class income from working as a short story writer for the Saturday Evening Post and other outlets. That doesn't happen anymore. It used to be that… — William Monahan Copy Share
