Top 7 Quotes & Sayings by Melissa Mathison

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American writer Melissa Mathison.
Last updated on December 22, 2024.
Melissa Mathison

Melissa Marie Mathison was an American film and television screenwriter and an activist for the Tibetan independence movement. She was best known for writing the screenplays for the films The Black Stallion (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the latter of which earned her the Saturn Award for Best Writing and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Children are primed to take in something of more moral value than they're getting. I know I'm blowing my own horn here, but 'E.T.' had value to it in terms of the feeling about yourself that you walked away with.
I go to movies with my children and see fat kids burping, parents portrayed as total morons, and kids being mean and materialistic, and I feel it's really slim pickin's out there. There's a little dribble of a moral tacked on, but the story is not about that.
I have two little children. I didn't want to be missing their childhood while I was away, busy writing about children. — © Melissa Mathison
I have two little children. I didn't want to be missing their childhood while I was away, busy writing about children.
If children are given some real content, they can feel powerful with their own understanding of it. I think a movie like 'Indian in the Cupboard' will instruct them how to proceed as people. They can think about whether they would have done something the way a character did, how they would have felt about an event in the story.
My idea of a good fantasy is something that's absolutely grounded in reality. And there's a little element that doesn't belong there - and that's the fantasy element - that you have to react to and deal with in a completely real way.
We weren't your mainstream '50s family. Both my parents had wonderful, eccentric, artistic friends who treated us as friends as well. How your mind worked was considered important.
I avoid listening to too many people's comments about my script. I have learned to take in what is of use. It's too frustrating looking at somebody's notes who didn't get what you were doing. If somebody says, 'This stinks, and here are all the reasons,' that's not going to help you.
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