Quotes & Sayings About Screenwriting

Screenwriting is like poker; in the end, you have to go all in. — A.D. Posey

I learned that you really don't have any control as a writer. Waah, waah, waah. Big deal. Unless you're the director on the movie, or putting up the money for the movie, you really don't have a lot of control. As someone who's just writing scripts, you just kind of have to shrug. I have no problems or issues with screenwriting in general. It is what it is. — Bret Easton Ellis

I find that screenwriting is at best kind of a hackwork in some ways. — John Milius

Writing turns everybody into wussies. Everybody quits. — Paul T. Scheuring

One of the worst parts about working in entertainment is that there's so much you're expected to have seen. Oh, you're a screenwriter? You've seen the new Batman, then, right? I'm watching this show on Amazon, right now, and oh my god, it's so good - but I'm sure you've already seen it. The reality is, I'm usually so busy on my own work, I rarely have time to see anything that isn't required for some kind of voting. — Jenny Trout

I find playwriting to be incredibly difficult compared to screenwriting. Part of it is that I grew up watching movies and not watching plays. — Zoe Kazan

The biggest difference between writing a movie and writing a novel? No one ever tries to sleep with me to get into one of my novels. — Mylo Carbia

The reason for his seven-year hiatus in direction: My son Aditya made Mohabbatein (2000), which took a lot of time and energy. Then we started looking for a script for me to direct. Nothing seemed to excite us both. There's a complete bankruptcy of screenwriting in our cinema. I wanted a very earthy and Indian subject. I was tired of the promos on television. With semi-clad girls, they all looked the same. Of course Dhoom (2004) has them too. But I'd personally not make a film like that. — Yash Chopra

Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out. — Paul Thomas Anderson

I've quit writing screenplay [adaptations]. It's too much work. I don't look at writing a novel as work, because I only have to please myself. I have a good time sitting here by myself, thinking up situations and characters, getting them to talk - it's so satisfying. But screenwriting's different. You might think you're writing for yourself, but there are too many other people to please. — Elmore Leonard

Screenwriting is a much more collaborative effort. When you write a novel, it's just you, with input from your editor. — Meg Cabot

I discovered John Truby ten years ago when a friend told me about his screenwriting course. I studied Truby's principles for a year and
using them
I wrote the first draft of The Thieves of Ostia in two weeks. I go back to his teachings before each new book I write. Each time I study Truby, I learn something new. — Caroline Lawrence

Few literary depictions of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake match the intensity and visceral power of those in Flacco's gripping first novel. The author's screenwriting talent shines in this story of the earth's destructive power and humanity's moral depravity. The emerging maniacal personality, revealed in increasingly gruesome and venomous detail, rivals the Ripper.Dickens meets Hannibal Lecter. Brace yourself. — William Bernhardt

As a writer, you're the guy in the box. You're creating and you have these euphorias. — Paul T. Scheuring

Why does Kubrick always chill our blood, and make us huddled up scared stiff with eyes wide shut? Because even dead he's still "Shinnying" with his old hand and his eye-catching plots. — Ana Claudia Antunes

There's a story you write, there's a story you shoot and there's a story you cut. — Paul T. Scheuring

No false promises are made that if you read these pages, you will learn the formula for writing a million-dollar screenplay; in fact, the dirty little secret of screenwriting books is that anyone who promises such formulas is lying. There — Peter Hanson

Collaborating on a film script involves two people sitting in a room separated by the silence of two minds working together. — Darlene Craviotto

Secure writers don't sell first drafts. They patiently rewrite until the script is as director-ready, as actor-ready as possible. Unfinished work invites tampering, while polished, mature work seals its integrity. — Robert McKee

All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant. — Robert McKee

People don't really want original stories. they want different versions of the same story. this is called meta-narrative. — Chester Elijah Branch

I want to get off with the screenwriting. — Obie Trice

I've taught both screenwriting and playwriting, and playwriting is both much harder and much more rewarding. One can teach people how to tell a story in cinematic ways, but theater is a much more elusive craft. — David Ives

I don't think screenwriting is therapeutic. It's actually really, really hard for me. It's not an enjoyable process. — Charlie Kaufman

Vulnerability is not a weakness, it strengthens
one and allows one to be okay with ones emotions. Be in touch with yourself.
Be yourself! — Christine Willson

It's an enormous wall that's built between you and your dreams. And if every day, you just chip away ... It may take ten years, but eventually you just might see some light. — Edward Burns

There are many self-proclaimed "screenwriting gurus" - though how you get to be a "guru" of something you've never actually done is beyond us. Screenplays are like blueprints. A guy who's drawn up a lot of blueprints that have never actually been made into buildings is not an "architecture guru," he's an "unemployed douchebag." A guy who talks about screen-writing but who's never sold a screenplay is not a "screenwriting guru," he's a "lecture circuit bullshit artist." From now on, that's what we'll call them. — Thomas Lennon

Screenwriting involves an often un-personal process. Co-writers, directors, producers, everyone has a say in what you put on a page, and stories are constantly changing according to budget, actors, and commercial needs. Films are a collaborative process and are also inherently narrative and structured, so you are always working within very tight parameters. Short fiction unleashes a more intimate voice and a passion for language. I believe short narratives can have the same amount of danger and drama as any action film. — Chiara Barzini

I tend to jot down moments, lines, interactions that don't really make any sense. I try and explain these scattered notes to my close friends, and they become more and more logical. I see screenwriting as a bit like a math equation which I have to solve. — Asghar Farhadi

It's when you feel worse, that's when your character comes out and the last thing you want to do is quit. — Paul T. Scheuring

Simply by eliminating description, the screenwriter can work his way through the entire plot in a single morning, leaving the afternoon free for screenwriter leisure activities such as drugs. — Dave Barry

And how deeply do I let business considerations affect [screenwriting] choices that might otherwise be more or less esthetic? ... Do I choose the upbeat rather than the downer ending because I know it will score better at the preview? Can the idea be sold in a single sentence? Can it compete with space aliens and tornadoes and missions impossible? — Edward Zwick

Love awakens the soul. — A.D. Posey

I became a script writer with absolutely no idea of how to write a script whatsoever. I still feel a bit of an outsider in that regard. If I can maintain that approach to screenwriting, it can continue to be enjoyable. — Nick Cave

A dramatic writer should never tell anything he can show. — Nunnally Johnson

The old days of screenwriting, and myths about screenwriting, are maybe over. It's a literary form, if you can wake up to it. — William Monahan

If you have someone on the set for the hair, why would you not have someone for the words? — Louis Malle

Makebelieve is a writer's best friend. — Solange Nicole

Every inch of my writing career has been influenced by my screenwriting education. I was lucky enough to go to film school at USC, and I got a crash course in how to tell a story efficiently. I learned structure, pace, my style, how to know your audience, and most importantly, how to take criticism and edits properly. — Victoria Aveyard

I guess I considered myself just sort of a sketch comedian, you know? Actual screenwriting hadn't really occurred to me as a viable job - I didn't really know anything about it. — Thomas Lennon

Screenwriting Joe Eszterhas have always talked about the charm of evil. — Chris Hayes

Nowadays films and television are what I like to call "Microwave Media". I like mine in the oven, giving the production time to simmer; get the juices flowing, and cooked to perfection. And that takes time. Slow, precious, tempered time. A script is a film's recipe. It's just a piece of paper to the novice cook, but even a recipe needs time to be perfected before it's given to the masses. — Solange Nicole

I have struggles in screenwriting that lead me to a third act that's always more or less efficiently wrapped up in a fourth act that's trying to give closure to too many things. — Xavier Dolan

I was about 14 when I started with a theater group; it was like a stage group on the weekends alongside school. And it was run by a group of guys who'd been to drama school themselves in London. So they introduced us to techniques that they'd learn about, and they kind of informed us about improvisation and screenwriting and all of that stuff. — Imogen Poots

Screenwriting is always about what people say or do, whereas good writing is about a thought process or an abstract image or an internal monologue, none of which works on screen. — David Nicholls

I first came to cinema as a passionate filmgoer, when I was a child. Then, when I was a very young man, I became a film critic precisely because of my knowledge of cinema. I did better than others because of this. Then I moved on to screenwriting. I wrote a film with Sergio Leone, 'Once Upon a Time in the West.' And then I moved to directing. — Dario Argento

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

I started acting when I was really young. I knew I wanted to be in the industry in other ways. I knew that I wanted to do more than just act. I don't know that I knew it was screenwriting, but I just knew that I wanted to be involved. — Jason Fuchs

Initially I only decided to try and write a novel because I wasn't getting enough screenwriting work. It wasn't a long-held ambition, and certainly the idea came first. — Stef Penney

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

Of all the most devastating sounds in the universe, silence is the most powerful. — Gerard De Marigny

All these teachers and [screenwriting] books mean you see movies that have been worked over by more committees wielding more rules, that all originality and authorship is lost. That's why you're seeing superstars like Brad Pitt in THE FIGHT CLUB and Tom Cruise in MAGNOLIA. They're desperately searching for people writing and directing off-formula movies. — Paul Schrader

It's a great euphoria when you reach that writing zone. — Paul T. Scheuring

The movies are fun, but I'm a novelist. In many ways, screenwriting is much easier than writing novels. I find screenplays twenty times easier to write than a novel. — Nicholas Sparks

I don't mind doing scripted material. It's actually kind of a relief, because improvising is a little bit like screenwriting on your feet. — John C. Reilly

I've never read a book or attended a class on screenwriting. I'm not opposed to the idea, but I like what I've got going on naturally and want to protect that. The one question I will ask myself as I'm re-reading a script for the 60th time is, 'Am I entertained? Still?' If the answer is 'yes,' I'll assume other people will be, too. — Wentworth Miller

There are far too many screenwriters who have made themselves honorary "secret" members of the Audience Protection Society (APS). Of course, they're easy to spot, which makes their membership in this group anything but secret. They write as if they are duty bound to protect their readers from the nastiness of ruthless drama. The way they see it, if they're going to go to the trouble of creating loveable and attractive characters why throw them to blood-thirsty apes, or have them face a fate worse than death? They tell themselves that such actions would offend their audience's sensibilities, but really it's their own fears and prejudices they can't cope with, not to mention those nagging insecurities concerning their ability to write credible characters in the grip of extreme emotion. They'd rather be dead than write cheese. — Billy Marshall Stoneking

I think, because ... well, I like the idea of coming up with a story that never existed before, but I don't really want to be in charge. I don't want to be famous. I guess I like the idea of sitting in the dark and knowing that I created the thing on screen, that it's my story, but, like, no-one else has to know it was me. Does that make sense? — Melissa Keil

I definitely have the screenwriting itch. — Victoria Aveyard

I just always remember myself as the teenager with questions about movies and screenwriting. I would hope that there was somebody out there who would answer those questions, and so, if I can take a few minutes to do it, I will. It's not threatening for us. We're not being stalked, so it's easier. — John August

The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement. — Raymond Chandler

All screenwriting books are bullshit, all. Watch movies, read screenplays. Let them be your guide. — Brian Koppelman

For me, as a writer who comes from quite a naturalistic tradition, British screenwriting is quite delicate, quite small, and rarified in a way. — Simon Beaufoy

Even with college, the reason I wanted to go so badly is because I wanted to major in film. I want to take screenwriting classes and learn more about behind the scenes stuff, because I love people like Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig who are able to write a lot of their own material and be so involved in everything they do. — Miranda Cosgrove

I've come to view screenwriting assignments as playwriting grants, because they provide a considerable financial cushion. However, they can also be extremely time-consuming. Film projects tend to drag on and on, which takes me away from the theatre, and then they don't get made. At the same time, the screenplays that have come my way have been quite challenging, for the most part, and even enjoyable. — Donald Margulies

Jenny is what people would call a "big girl." Jenny from screenwriting class. I watch how she lives in her own imperfect skin, recognizing her limitations but still going for what she wants and doing what she loves - writing, smoking, drinking coffee, eating cake, listening to rock 'n' roll, reading Shakespeare, and wearing cute, punky clothes, all despite being a "big girl." It's like she actually believes she has a right to be in this world. — Lisa Kotin

With prose, I know where I'm starting and I think I know where I'm going. — Paul T. Scheuring

Inspiring someone else to follow their dreams is the hope of anyone who has the courage to follow their own. — Dawn Garcia

As a writer of both novels and screenplays, I can say that screenwriting is a vastly rewarding creative life - if you fight hard enough to do it on your own terms. Whether I write books or not, my screenwriting life has been creatively rewarding and remains so. — John Fusco

What I always studied in screenwriting from my mentor John Glavin was that the most interesting characters are characters with shades of gray. — Mike Birbiglia

In fiction, I have a residual guilt when I focus on story over language or mood or whatever - the more "literary" things. In screenwriting, I don't have that guilt because story is the only thing. Character, dialogue, everything else - they feed into and drive story. — Nick Antosca

I'm generally somebody who hopes for the best. It's not what one ought to do in my line of work [screenwriting], but it is what I do. — Jonathan Tropper

I studied writing at university, and I actually majored in screenwriting. Then I went to work as a bookseller and then as a sales rep and publicist and then various editorial jobs until I ended up with HarperCollins in Australia. — Garth Nix

I've been a novelist since 1995 and have had novels in and out of option, and watching that process just made me realize that I have to live by what I teach my students, because I teach screenwriting at Spellman. — Tananarive Due

Want a role? Fuck a screenwriter. — A.D. Posey

Fiction and screenwriting blend for me. I feel like being a TV writer/screenwriter has definitely made my fiction writing better, although I have less time to do it. — Nick Antosca

To paraphrase Muggeridge: Everything is a parable that God is speaking to us, the art of life is to get the message. — Chester Elijah Branch

I often attribute my screenwriting to journalism because they drill in the who, what, when, where and why - but we really need to land on that why. That's what I've been exploring in my writing for many years and trying to get better at. — Mara Brock Akil

I'm very lucky. I actually like screenwriting. I rarely feel a sense of doom going to my desk. — Simon Beaufoy

I'm from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of screenwriting. I just like to preserve what works and ignore what doesn't work. — Andrew Dominik

There's a satisfaction I get from writing fiction that I will never get from screenwriting. — Jonathan Tropper

You know, my problem with most screenwriting is it is a blueprint. It's like they're afraid to write the damn thing. And I'm a writer. That's what I do. I want it to be written. I want it to work on the page, first and foremost. So when I'm writing the script, I'm not thinking about the viewer watching the movie. I'm thinking about the reader reading the script. — Quentin Tarantino

Working at Pixar has been like my graduate school for screenwriting. — Michael Arndt

The Hollywood process is a living thing and you get used to that. — Paul T. Scheuring

Once you see the entertainment world from both sides, you really get a greater understanding of how it all operates. As an actor going into screenwriting, I was able to understand what type of dialogue feels natural and what an actor could actually say. — John Francis Daley

Intuition is truth. — A.D. Posey

Do you want it good or Tuesday? — Jimmy Sangster

The history of screenwriting - of what we do - is more than 100 years old. It's thousands of years old, going back to Sophocles and Euripedes. I believe the only - the only - separation for being a dramatist is reading drama. — John Logan

I was a screenwriting major at Georgetown, and I was in class with some really strong writers like Jonathan Nolan, who co-wrote 'The Dark Knight' with Chris, his brother. He wrote 'The Prestige,' the story for 'Memento.' — Mike Birbiglia

[G]reat stories communicate simple truths that reflect the poetic dimensions of the human soul. Not only do powerful characters help us understand our lives, their stories reflect our core values as human beings. — Kate Wright

Novelist by day; screenwriter by night. — A.D. Posey

The personal screenplay- where you dive into the terrifying depths of your soul, unearth the most intimate details about yourself, and put it on paper for the world to see. Proceed with caution, for madness lies ahead. — A.D. Posey

Peace is when we look upon the world together. — A.D. Posey

'The Fourth Hand' was a novel that came from twenty years of screenwriting concurrently with whatever novel I'm writing. — John Irving

I have no problems or issues with screenwriting in general. — Bret Easton Ellis

... the midpoint of each film is the moment when each protagonist embraces for the first time the quality they will need to become complete and finish their story. It's when they discover a truth about themselves. — John Yorke

Screenwriting is still a challenge for me. It's more technical than creative. You have to be a very good journeyman plumber and put the proper parts together. Then, if you can still inject a little bit of something worthwhile, you have done as much as can be expected. — Leigh Brackett

I was a screenwriting and studio art major in college, so even though I don't have any training as a floral designer, I have a very particular visual aesthetic. — Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Even though I was trained in play writing and screenwriting, when I sat down to write a comic book for the first time, Alan Moore was first and foremost in my mind. — Brian K. Vaughan

The whole purpose of screenwriting is to convey everything through action and dialogue and not explanation and exposition. To me, there are movies where voiceover works really well because it does something more than exposition; it actually becomes a tonal element of the movie. — Jonathan Tropper