Notable Quotes from Contributors

(For List of Contributors, click here)
 

“I had to get hired before the people that hired me actually read anything I’d written.” (page 33)
-Bob Cochran, 24; L.A. Law

“We both realize that this is a moment to savor and that there is nothing more Hollywood than being on Hollywood Boulevard and blowing shit up.” (page 243)
-Donna Powers & Wayne Powers, The Italian Job

“Our favorite line we wrote for Pirates of the Caribbean is one we didn’t write.” (page 173)
-Terry Rossio, Shrek; The Mask of Zorro

“Then I went to the first screening and I wanted to…well, you know, slit my wrists while jumping out of the Empire State Building after taking an overdose of sleeping pills, hoping to land in front of a bus going, say, 150 miles an hour.” (page 121)
 -Jim Kouf, National Treasure; Stakeout

“’I suppose I have to write for a particular star?’” “’Certainly not. Disney is the star.’” (page 55)
-Rosemary Anne Sisson, Upstairs, Downstairs

“I can quit.”    (page 18)
 -Steve Gaghan, Syriana; Traffic

“’My problem is,’” she said, “’there are too many words on the page.’” (page 109)
 -Billy Riback, Murphy Brown; Home Improvement

“’There’ll be a drive-on for you at the gate,’” the assistant said. As I approached the gate, I realized I had a drive-on, but I had nothing to drive on.” (page 87)
-Andrew W. Marlowe, Airforce One; Hollow Man

“I gave scores of interviews ‘til my head was spinning. (I almost began to feel nostalgic for the many times on other movies when I was ignored.)” (page 164)
-Ted Tally, Silence of the Lambs

“Resigned, I began making the script worse. There weren’t wrenching changes; it was more the death by a thousand little razor cuts.” (page 190)
 -Leslie Dixon, Mrs. Doubtfire; The Thomas Crown Affair

“It’s difficult to focus on writing because I spend a lot of time daydreaming about my new Mercedes, the house I’m going to buy my mom, and the scholarship fund I’m going to set up for future female sitcom writers who want to be just like me.” (page 212)
-Felicia D. Henderson, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air 

“’I quit.’” (page 220)
-Lionel Chetwynd, The Seige at Ruby Ridge

“Sometimes it’s best to have the worst thing that will ever happen to you in the entire sweep of your movie industry career happen early. I didn’t read this someplace. It happened to me.” (page 70)
-Marc Norman, Shakespeare In Love

“’This is a poker game,’ he reminds me. “’We cannot show weakness.’” (page 68)
-Robert Nelson Jacobs, Chocolat

“I was taught in high school biology that breathing is an involuntary function, but at that moment, it was all I could do to remember to expel the air from my lungs shortly after I inhaled.” (page 168)
-Glenn Gordon Caron, Medium; Moonlighting

“It turns out that the Star doesn’t like this sort of movie (action/thriller). In fact, he clarifies, ‘I don’t like movies.’ The Writer glances at the Director—this could be a problem.” (page 183)
-Wesley Strick, Cape Fear; Doom

“Writing your screenplay is the lovely, harmless part. It’s through the game that follows —I call it Heaven or Hell—that you learn what the movie business is all about.” (page 156)
-Joseph Stefano, Psycho

“So, my first big-time writing job, I wrote about people I didn’t know, living in a city I’d never been in, trying to break into an industry I had never been around.” (page 161)
-Louisa Leschin, The George Lopez Show 

“I quit.” (page 191)
-Jane Anderson, How to Make an American Quilt

“He was a hard and unforgiving man who enjoyed terrorizing all who came near him—particularly writers, especially writers.” (page 216)
-Lionel Chetwynd, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

“You’re a freak! For today, a very well-paid freak, but a freak nonetheless.” (page 95)
 -Sandra Tsing Loh, Chicken Little (see essay)

“…I didn’t quit...” (page 49)
-Gregory Allen Howard, Ali; Remember the The Titans

“The job is hard. The season is long. Applause fades. Cherish your dignity.” (page 256)
-Michael Colleary, Face/Off

“Chin up; tits out.” (page 63)
-Margot Black, Sleeping Beauty (DVD)

“Almost apologetically, I said I was a screenwriter.” (page 250)
 -John August, Big Fish; Corpse Bride 

Quotes from Doing It For Money: The Agony and Ecstasy of
Writing and Surviving in Hollywood

(Tallfellow Press, ISBN 1-93129058-X, $24.95)

(For List of Contributors, click here)