Brian Helgeland

As much as I love period movies and especially more swashbuckling movies, I think that sometimes they tend to be, umm... it's…

— Brian Helgeland

I think 'Cool Hand Luke' was probably the first movie in which I was aware of the writing as its own separate…

— Brian Helgeland

Working on an adaptation is not as satisfying, because it's not your original work: you're interpreting. With 'L.A. Confidential,' I loved the…

— Brian Helgeland

If Im in the bookstore, and I see a 700-page novel, my first thought is, Ooh, how could you cut this down…

— Brian Helgeland

I don't really write with living actors in mind. I guess I write for dead actors. I'll think of like, you know,…

— Brian Helgeland

I was in a bookstore one afternoon, and I stumbled across this book called 'A Guide to Film Schools.' I always loved…

— Brian Helgeland

It's as boring to see a completely evil villain as it is to see a completely good guy.

— Brian Helgeland

You can write anything you want on paper, like blowing up the bridge on the River Kwai, but when you actually have…

— Brian Helgeland

Because I've been at it so long and very steadily, I have a lot of credits, but I probably have twice as…

— Brian Helgeland

I write R-rated action dramas, and every year that goes by, that gets to be a smaller and smaller world you have…

— Brian Helgeland

There are plenty of writers who are going to become a director after their next job, but no one will believe you're…

— Brian Helgeland

Its such an egotistical thing to be able to just stand there and say, Action! Its like being a little mini-god.

— Brian Helgeland

If you write an original, its like you went in and dug a well, and you hit oil. But an adaptation, its…

— Brian Helgeland

“The pieces of my broken heart are so small that they could be passed through the eye of a needle.”

— Brian Helgeland

I worked as hard to write the worst film of the year as I did to write the best film of the…

— Brian Helgeland

It's okay to lie as long as you reach a higher truth doing it.

— Brian Helgeland

In exchange for ten years of being on top, I'm gonna end up in prison or I'm gonna end up dead, and…

— Brian Helgeland

The studio is spending great amounts of money, and they want some insurance they will get money back. They go for the…

— Brian Helgeland

It's always once the script's done in the first two years if it doesn't get going somehow or another, I've never had…

— Brian Helgeland

For me in a film, almost every scene you end up cutting a bit of the start of it out, and some…

— Brian Helgeland

Movie dialogue is movie dialogue. It can sound real, but no one speaks that way.

— Brian Helgeland

I think when I start out writing, I always try to write the version of the movie that I want to go…

— Brian Helgeland

If you write an original, it's like you went in and dug a well, and you hit oil. But an adaptation, it's…

— Brian Helgeland

I think there's something strange about writing a script I've written many, many scripts - dozens and dozens of scripts - and…

— Brian Helgeland

I know a lot of directors have a whole staff of people trying to find their next film for them. I always…

— Brian Helgeland