Screenwriter Quotes

• My father was a screenwriter, but he was also a novelist.

  

  Sadie Jones
  • Father
  • Also
  • Screenwriter

• I look at myself more as a storyteller than a screenwriter, as pretentious as that may sound, but that's what really attracts me to TED Talks. For me, the really effective ones are being presented by expert storytellers.

  

  Damon Lindelof
  • Effective
  • Storyteller
  • Expert

• Being a good television screenwriter requires an understanding of the way film accelerates the communication of words.

  

  Steven Bochco
  • Words
  • Film
  • Screenwriter

• He went to every fund-raising meeting vouching for a first-time feature director and first-time screenwriter. It was Phil who said, 'I believe in them; you need to trust me.

  

  Dan Futterman
  • Director
  • Screenwriter
  • Fundraising

• I always loved movies, but I never thought I would presume to be a screenwriter and definitely not a director. I spent a lot of time for no money trying to teach myself how to write a script. It always felt like everybody was looking the other way and sneaking that script through the system, but it did well later on video and got another chance.

  

  Cameron Crowe
  • Time
  • Trying
  • Money

• I think part of being a good screenwriter is being as concise as possible.

  

  Eric Roth
  • Possible
  • Screenwriter
  • Concise

• With a screenwriter and with the actors there is always an environment of trust. You can say anything, all your secrets, and you know that it won't get out of that room.

  

  Deniz Gamze Erguven
  • Environment
  • Secrets
  • Room

• Pictures are written, acted, directed, photo­graphed, edited, scored and all that. The screenwriter determines what scenes are in and what scenes are out; decides whether that bit of information is dramatized or just referred to; whether it takes place on or off screen. There are millions of decisions made by the screenwriter.

  

  Ernest Lehman
  • Decisions
  • Pictures
  • Screenwriter

• Writing a story starts out as a puzzle in your mind, of "What is it I'm fantasizing about right now that makes me think this is going to be worth years of work?" And you just keep pushing and trying to figure it out, and once you've hit on these resonances... Then as a screenwriter, it can be dangerous if you get too hooked on just finding things that resonate with each other, because then you risk getting into stuff that's too neat, and becomes stifled as storytelling. But you do feel like you're on the right track when you start to have a sense of what goes with what.

  

  Andrew Bujalski
  • Work
  • Writing
  • Puzzle

• There's this movie, 'Zero Dark Thirty' about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Some have complained that too many 'secrets' were dished out by the intelligence and special operations communities to director Kathryn Bigelow, screenwriter Mark Boal and their crew, part of a broader pattern of using intelligence for political effect.

  

  Michael Hayden
  • Political
  • Intelligence
  • Director

• I was a novelist before I was a TV screenwriter. Actually, as a kid, I think I'd always wanted to be a writer, but never thought that I would be one.

  

  Ben Richards
  • Novelist
  • Screenwriter

• The dull externals of the screenwriter's working life are well known: We are the people taking up too much table space at cafes.

  

  John Whitney "Whit" Stillman
  • Space
  • Screenwriter
  • Cafe

• I was just starting out, trying to become a screenwriter, and I became the Austin slam champion three times. For a nerdy, kind of a socially awkward guy, that did wonders for my self esteem.

  

  Ernest Cline
  • Champion
  • Self-Esteem
  • Wonders

• You are the executive director and screenwriter of your life.

  

  Eric Thomas
  • Life
  • Director
  • Screenwriter

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

  

  Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Film
  • Directed
  • Screenwriter

• The absolute base-level thing that you do as a new screenwriter is send out query letters. Literally, you just say, 'Hi, Mr. So-and-So,' and you give them a one-sentence description of one of your scripts. You send it out to a list of people you found on the Internet.

  

  Evan Daugherty
  • Internet
  • Letters
  • Scripts

• I would encourage you as a screenwriter to trust your story and don't make notes for the actors or don't make notes for the reader.

  

  Ewan McGregor
  • Trust
  • Actors
  • Reader

• Very often, things that people may think come from the writer, very often don't. There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen when it comes to making a movie. When you hear a line of dialogue that sounds kind of tinny, it's pretty easy to cite the screenwriter. But there's a lot of stuff that goes into making a movie.

  

  Evan Daugherty
  • Movie
  • Writer
  • Dialogue