“Out of the seventy movies I've written some ten of them were not entirely waste product.” Quote by Ben Hecht
“The factors that laid low so whooping and puissant an empire as the old Hollywood are many. I can think of a score, including the barbarian hordes of Television. But there is one that stands out for me in the post-mortem.... The factor had to do with the basis of movie-making: 'Who shall be in charge of telling the story.'” ThinkingI CanStoriesTelevisionLowsHollywoodBasesIncludingFactorsPostsScoreEmpiresStanding OutBarbariansHordeMovie MakingOld Hollywood Author:Ben Hecht
“The only practical way yet discovered by the world for curing its ills is to forget about them.” WorldWayForgetPracticals Author:Ben Hecht
“The writer is a definite human phenomenon. He is almost a type - as pugilists are a type. He may be a bad writer - an insipid one or a clumsy one - but there is a bug in him that keeps spinning yarns; and that bulges his brow a bit, narrows his jaws, weakens his eyes and gives him girl children instead of boys. Nobody but a writer can write. People who hang around writers for years - as producers did - who are much smarter and have much better taste, never learn to write.” PeopleGivingWritingYearsHumansMayChildrenEyeGirlBitsBoysTypeTasteProducersHis EyesPhenomenonSmarterDefiniteBugsSpinningBrowsClumsyInsipidYarnGirl Child Author:Ben Hecht
“There is nothing as dull as an intellectual ally after a certain age.” AgeCertainIntellectualDullAllies Author:Ben Hecht
“They're a symbol of the whole town, pretending to fight, love, weep and laugh all the time - and they're phonies, all of them. And I head the list...their phony hearts were dripping with the milk of human kindness.” HumansHeartWholeFightingKindnessLaughingTownsListsSymbolsPretendingMilkPhonyDrippingHuman Kindness Author:Ben Hecht
“Three years ago, the white hope of the theatre. Today, a mug. That's New York for you. Puts you on a Christmas tree, and then - the alley.” YearsTodayThreeWhiteTreeNew YorkYears AgoTheatreThree YearsAlleysChristmas TreeMug Author:Ben Hecht
“Writing a good movie brings a writer about as much fame as steering a bicycle. It gets him, however, more jobs. If his movie is bad it will attract only critical tut-tut for him. The producer, director and stars are the geniuses who get the hosannas when it's a hit. Theirs are also the heads that are mounted on spears when it's a flop.” IfsWritingJobsStarsGeniusFameDirectorsCriticalProducersBicycleGood MovieSpearsSteering Author:Ben Hecht
“As I was whizzing around the United States on yet another demented book tour, getting up at four in the morning to catch planes, doing two cities a day, eating the Pringle food object out of the mini-bar at night as I crawled around on the hotel room floor, too tired even to phone room service, I thought, 'There must be a better way of doing this'.” WayTwoBookStatesNightUnitedRoomsCitiesMorningUnited StatesFourObjectsEatingTiredPhonesBarsPlanesHotelBetter WaysHotel RoomsDementedRoom ServicePringles Author:Margaret Atwood
“Eating is our earliest metaphor, preceding our consciousness of gender difference, race, nationality, and language. We eat before we talk.” LanguageDifferencesRaceConsciousnessEatingMetaphorGenderNationalityGender Differences Book:The Edible Woman Source: The Edible Woman
“I became a poet at the age of sixteen. I did not intend to do it. It was not my fault.” AgePoetFaultsSixteen Author:Margaret Atwood