Theatre Quotes by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Every screenwriter worthy of the name has already directed his film when he has written his script.

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

All playwrights should be dead for three hundred years.

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

[Writers are] the highest paid secretaries in the world.

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

So many people know me. I wish I did. I wish someone would tell me about me.

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Funny business, a woman's career: the things you drop on the way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need…

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Please don't look at me as if you had a source of income other than your salary.

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

There's nothing as real as money.

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

There is no such thing as realistic dialogue. If you [simply recorded] the real conversation of any people and played it back from the…

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

The difference between life and the movies is that a script has to make sense, and life doesn't.

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

I got a job at Metro and went in to see Louis Mayer, who told me he wanted me to be a producer. I…

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

I am a critic - as essential to the theatre as ants to a picnic.

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz

I've been in on the beginning, the rise, peak, collapse and end of the talking picture.

— Joseph L. Mankiewicz