Top 198 Screenplays Quotes & Sayings

I think I would like to write screenplays, books, really anything.

Most screenplays depend primarily on the vision of a director.

Actually, screenplays were much more detailed than what I did in the book In the book I had to invent a style for communicating what the sensation of looking at a film would be, whereas the screenplays I wrote in Paris were actual blueprints for how to do the film, with every gesture, every little movement noted in exhaustive detail.

I was never conscious of my screenplays having any acts. It's all bullshit.

I started writing screenplays myself and eventually directing.

I have completed and uncompleted screenplays, but they both fall into the category of “unsold.” I've seen quite a few movies where the screenplays seemed to be in the “uncompleted” category yet still got sold and made into movies, so I generally refer too all screenplays as “sold” or “unsold.” But that's just my own filing system.

I began writing fictional stories and little screenplays when I was in fifth grade.

I love Hap and Leonard and plan to write more about them, but not exclusively about them. I have always worked in film, or since the eighties, but my screenplays - though I got paid and did screenplays for Ridley Scott and John Irvin and Mark Romanek - seldom got made.

I write mostly as a director. That's why my screenplays are very detailed. So I get into the images I see. I like that.

I find reading screenplays difficult, as they're only a roadmap for what a movie might end up being.

There are a lot of bad screenplays so if you write a good screenplay people are going to respond to it.

Writing screenplays is incredibly hard. I can't call it joy. Writing Novels? Joy. Directing? Joy. Writing Screenplays? That's where you pay all your dues.

I've been writing screenplays for a long time, and a lot of it came out of the journalism I was doing.

I don't write tracking shots in my screenplays or any camera directions, but I do try to give a sense of how the action is moving.

I think the reason I wrote screenplays for nearly a decade was because it was my territory. I could stake that out.

I write screenplays in the middle of the night.

I just write by instinct and my screenplays are often the effort of a year-long penance on a subject.

In 2007, I probably wrote four screenplays in the entire year. Every three months I was writing a screenplay.

You talk about auteur de cinema having things in their heads and putting them all across, can you imagine Shakespeare writing screenplays?

Screenplays are the currency of Hollywood.

Most screenplays I receive are boring, and some are straight-out bad.

Because I'm the author of my screenplays I know what I'm looking for. It's true that I can be stubborn in demanding that I get what I want, but it's also a question of working with patience and love.

I'd done table reads for my own screenplays, and I always thought they were so much fun. Why couldn't we do these for other classic screenplays and bring them to life? You can experience live theater, where you get to see plays produced by different directors and different casts, but there's really nothing like that for movie scripts.

You probably can't name more than a handful of comedies that would qualify for Best Picture. I can think of a lot of comedy screenplays; Woody Allen has had numerous nominations for his screenplays. But most comedies are calculated. They tend to pander. They're not about anything important.

I definitely want to do more movies, and I'm also a writer, so I have a few screenplays that I'm working on, one of them based off my one-woman show that I used to do in New York. Two of the screenplays I've written by myself, and then I'm also working on one with my writing partner, Tom Riley, who's in London.

My approach to making movies is different than other people, because I just write a lot of screenplays. I'm constantly writing screenplays.

I just really loved films and thought I should be writing screenplays.

It's hard writing screenplays.

I'm the Emily Dickinson of screenplays.

I do love the challenge of screenplays. They're so difficult, such an alien form. It makes them endlessly fascinating. Something I can't keep my fingers out of.

My God, there are so many mediocre screenplays out there.

I've written a couple screenplays and half-finished plays.

I write a number of screenplays, and I've never really come up with a part for a movie star.

And I've got some screenplays and plays ready to dip into when I need to.

In all my screenplays, I have been exploring various aspects of femininity.

The best way for a beginner to write for animation is to closely watch animated films, then read the screenplays for them afterwards.

For me, if Shakespeare was around today, he'd be writing screenplays - a big Hollywood movie.

Film isn't a meritocracy; there's no system ensuring the best screenplays get produced. It's a hustle.

I don't read books on how to write screenplays just because I'm stubborn. So it's all sort of made up.

All screenwriting books are bullshit, all. Watch movies, read screenplays. Let them be your guide.

I've been working with a lot of people out in Hollywood on writing scripts, screenplays, directing, producing, and making music.

I find screenplays easy to write, my novels being very visual. You see what people look like. The physical action is described.

The idea of directing was something that I always had in the back of my mind, and writing as well. I began to write screenplays when I was in my 20's.

Well, you just know, as a writer, I didn't really write one of the five best screenplays of the year. There were lots of brilliant screenplays; I was just one of the lucky ones who got nominated.

When I started writing screenplays, as early as I started writing anything, I hadn't seen any ordinary screenplays. I saw movies and figured out how I thought they should be written.

I just finished a novel, and I'm back kind of noodling on the screenplays. Screenplays are tough. I am making music, I'm just not sure what kind of music it is or where it's going.

In the past, I'll admit, I've enjoyed being compared to the protagonists in my screenplays.

I think I've had pretty good experiences for the most part with the people who have directed my screenplays.

When writing screenplays, it's a matter of remembering to leave off the page anything and everything that doesn't appear on the screen.

Generally, screenplays suck.

My songs aren't built around choruses or hooks or anything like that. That's kind of how I write screenplays too.

I wrote several screenplays over the years to really polish my craft and learn from my mistakes.

The whole process of making movies and writing screenplays is visceral and intuitive.

Although I write screenplays, I don't think I'm a very good writer.

I've come to find more satisfaction and enjoyment in writing screenplays over the years because that's what I do primarily now.

In my screenplays - from the very beginning I've always used tape. I talk my screenplays. And then have somebody transcribe them.

No one bought my screenplays.

God is a freaking character, with enough foibles, tantrums, and paradoxical behaviors to supply a thousand screenplays. But who do you cast?

I'm developing some screenplays at the moment with my Australian producer.

I'm attracted to short screenplays. Nobody really wants a film to be over two hours, or at least I don't.