“I can pick up a screenplay and flip through the pages. If all I see is dialog, dialog, dialog, I won't even read it. I don't care how good the dialog is - it's a moving picture. It has to move all the time... It's not the stage. A movie audience doesn't have the patience to sit and learn a lesson. Their eyes need to be dazzled. The writer is the most important element in the entire film because if it ain't on the page it ain't going to be on the screen.” IfsNeedsI CanImportantEyeCareFilmMovingAudienceStageLessonsElementsPagesPicksDon't CareScreensI Don't CareFlipScreenplaysLearning Lessons Author:Robert Evans
“I'm not writing novels, the screenplays are my novels, so I'm gonna write it the best that I can. If the movie never gets made, it'd almost be okay because I did it. It's there on the page.” IfsWritingMadeI CanNovelPagesOkayMade ItScreenplays Author:Quentin Tarantino
“If you're trying to drop ten pages from a screenplay, it hurts like hell, but if you just put it away for a month and then take it out, you can do it just like that!” IfsTryingCan DoHurtHellMonthsTenPagesIt HurtsYou Can Do ItScreenplays Author:Quentin Tarantino
“A book is maybe about 350 pages, and the prose allows for readers to get a glimpse into the internal lives of the characters. A screenplay is 120 pages, and it's all dialogue and action. The pacing of films is different, the structure is often different, and the internal lives of the characters must come across through the acting. Movies are just a different experience than reading - so it just depends on what an individual prefers.” BookDifferentCharacterActionFilmReadingIndividualActingDependsReaderPagesStructureDialogueProseInternalsGlimpseScreenplaysPacingDifferent Experiences Author:Nicholas Sparks
“When I started writing short stories, I thought I was writing a novel. I had like 60 or 70 pages. And what I realized was that I don't write inner monologue. I don't want to talk about what somebody is thinking or feeling. I wanted to try to show it in an interesting way. And so what I realized was that I was really writing a screenplay.” ThinkingWayWantWritingTryingStoriesShowsFeelingsWantedInterestingNovelPagesI RealizedShort StoryScreenplaysMonologuesInteresting WaysWriting ShortWriting Short Stories Author:Shane Carruth
“Well, I kind of approach both of them similarly in (that) I always see it as a movie first because that's my background. Cindy Kelley, who has been my writing partner on my novels, she works more on the prose side and the description side of the storytelling because, obviously, there's a lot more of that in a novel than in a screenplay. You only have up to 120 pages in a screenplay.” WritingFirstsWellsKindHas BeensSidesNovelApproachPagesPartnersBackgroundsStorytellingProseDescriptionScreenplaysCindy Author:Michael Landon, Jr.
“I counted it up once. I think I have written 45 full screenplays. Of those, maybe 15 have been shot, in some form. That's a pretty good track record, but it's not 100%. It is frustrating that, as a screenwriter, I've seen all those movies and they don't exist in the real world. They're juts inside my head and on those pages.” ThinkingWorldHas BeensRealFormRecordsWrittenPagesShotsTrackReal WorldFrustratingScreenplaysScreenwritersTrack Record Author:John August
“If you don't have a brilliant screenplay, then you either have amazing actors who give you the chance to improve whatever is on the page, or an interesting director who has enough faith in the project that they can carry it through and get it somewhere. One of those factors needs to happen. If not, it's sad.” IfsNeedsGivingEnoughHappensActorsChanceInterestingDirectorsProjectsPagesBrilliantFactorsScreenplays Author:Ayelet Zurer
“I like movies. I've written screenplays as a sort of procrastination thing for me. Like I'll work for a couple months on this idea that's been kicking around and then like 30 pages in I'll just go try a novel because it's a lot easier. That's what I know. So why am I killing myself?” KnowsTryingIdeasNovelWrittenMonthsCoupleEasierPagesKillingProcrastinationScreenplaysKickingKilling Myself Author:Colson Whitehead
“I was born in the era of the novel. I've written many, as well as collections of poetry, and essays for mouthing off. I've written to inches, word-counts, page-counts, even the sonnet and the screenplay (which I call a plot poem). I write narrative. That's it. I just want to tell it.” WantWritingWellsBornNovelWrittenPagesErasNarrativeCollectionsPlotInchesEssaysSonnetScreenplays Author:Julianna Baggott
“The day you step on the floor the meter is ticking and time is of the essence. You can't really afford to not know what you're doing. So I think the screenplay is a great tool to get everybody on the same page.” ThinkingKnowsStepsPagesToolsEssenceScreenplaysMeter Author:Robert Schwentke
“I loved the tone and the characters. They're all very different and they're all very typical for their time. When you read the screenplay you feel like meeting them and getting them off the page and on to the screen.” FeelsDifferentCharacterPagesMeetingsScreensToneTypicalScreenplays Author:Lone Scherfig
“Writing screenplays is very freeing from what you can do in comics in a lot of ways. You can change things around. I can take great delight in writing 40 pages, then just pressing delete and getting rid of it and not thinking about it ever again. Whereas in comics, if I had put that kind of effort into it, I couldn't go on.” IfsThinkingWayWritingKindI CanCan DoEffortGoes OnPagesDelightScreenplays Author:Daniel Clowes