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Quote by William Monahan

“On historical you take the known facts, dramatize them, and then stitch them together by invention. It's a projective thing.”

Quote by William Monahan

Author

William Monahan

William Monahan, born on November 3, 1960, is an American screenwriter known for his profound insights into crime themes and his exquisite narrative skills. His works, including 'The Departed' and 'The Departed', have earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. more

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“I'm usually the first guy to propose a change because I'm continuing my process. We're in a context, in this business, a context in which most screenplays work on a very modest level of achievement, in that a lot of them aren't really written by what you would call writers.”

Firsts Guy Process Levels Written Achievement Continuing Modest Propose Screenplays

Author:William Monahan

“They're done by guys who have talked a good game and then have scrambled together the simulacrum of a drama, so actors are habituated to sometimes having to save a picture on the floor because it's usually part of their job, but they'd rather have a writer doing his job, so that they can do theirs. But I like nothing better than working with actors.”

Sometimes Done Together Jobs Guy Actors Games Can Do Drama Simulacrum

Author:William Monahan

“A criminal has a kind of freedom by definition that the ordinary citizen doesn't have. The criminal's able to realize himself in ways not available to the general population, if you want to put it that way. They're interesting and unpredictable. Characters always have to break some sort of bound or other to be interesting. It also helps if they're paradoxical.”

Ifs Way Want Kind Character Helping Able Realizing Interesting Break Citizens Ordinary Bounds Population Definitions Available Criminals Unpredictable Paradoxical Ordinary Citizens

Author:William Monahan

“Doing crime films...maybe it's to some extent a matter of taste. Certainly my first novel had a criminal element and was about the similarity of criminals and artists. Pretextually, it was sort of a money bag thriller. But it was aggressively not what it seemed to be. It was kind of Duchamps.”

Firsts Kind Matter Film Artist Novel Crime Taste Elements Criminals Bags Similarity Thrillers

Author:William Monahan

“If I can give a young author any advice, whatsoever, never let anyone announce the film sale of your first novel. Film rights are sold to almost every novel, but it shouldn't be the lead story in your first engagement with the press. Then you end up getting reviews like "a novel made for the screen" and things like that.”

Ifs Giving Firsts Made I Can Ends Stories Film Young Novel Rights Advice Presses Screens Reviews Engagement

Author:William Monahan

“The novel ceases to be looked at as a novel. Such is the overwhelming power of motion pictures. Gore Vidal pointed out that the movies are the only thing anybody's really interested in. The association with movies and movie money can, and certainly did in my case, occlude a novel as a novel.”

Cases Novel Cease Overwhelming Association Gore Motion Pictures

Author:William Monahan

“Certainly some guy eating cardboard in Cincinnati has lost any ordinary impetus to review your novel decently if he's just read you just got six figures out of Warner Bros - which incidentally was not true.”

Ifs Guy Lost Novel Figures Six Eating Ordinary Reviews Impetus Bros Warner Bros

Author:William Monahan

“The novel may be dead as a commercial form. When art forms things die as commercial forms, something happens to the practice of those arts that isn't very pleasant. It used to be that a poet like Tennyson could keep his house and his coach-and-four and his staff of six servants on the income from poetry. That doesn't happen anymore.”

May Art Happens Form Used Dies House Practice Novel Four Poet Six Coaches Things Happen Income Used To Be Servant Pleasant Staff Tennyson

Author:William Monahan

“Poetry died as a commercial form and then it died as a serious art form. No one serious touches it. It used to be that somebody like F. Scott Fitzgerald could make a high middle-class income from working as a short story writer for the Saturday Evening Post and other outlets. That doesn't happen anymore. It used to be that a legitimate playwright could make a living on Broadway from writing decent plays.”

“[Eugene] O'Neill made a living, certainly, at least. But each of these forms have sort of died the death in turn, and it's a simple fact of that universe that talent then migrates away from these forms, and then the amateurs get in, like lunatics in the ruins, sort of pretending to be artists. If you're ambitious enough to want to be a writer to begin with, you want to be a writer in some circumstances where there are rewards, where there's notice, where you don't have to be a teacher, and where you're frankly not nuts for wasting your time.”

Ifs Want Made Enough Facts Form Artist Turns Universe Simple Teacher Talent Circumstances Died Rewards Ruins Pretending Nuts Ambitious Wasting Your Time Migrate Eugene O Neill

Author:William Monahan