
Is the customer always right? Of course not. This is not 1950. Are we word slaves at the service of tyrannical bosses? Nope. If Read More...
Is the customer always right? Of course not. This is not 1950.
Are we word slaves at the service of tyrannical bosses? Nope.
If somebody calls and wants us to essentially take dictation, I’ll refer them to a typist.
If someone tells me they’ve completed their first screenplay and it’s brilliant, and all they need is a little editing and a polish, I warn them. “Stop right there. You may think it’s brilliant, but a professional screenwriter will probably think otherwise. If I send your work to one of my people, I guarantee you will hear things you don’t want to hear.”
We’re not trying to beat you up. We want you to succeed, and we know what needs to be done to achieve that. And we know if you’re new at this that you’ve made mistakes that will prevent your work from ever being filmed.
Don’t sabotage yourself.
Let’s pretend you have a basic understanding of how the mechanical innards of a car work. You take the car to a mechanic because it’s become sluggish. The mechanic will want to know the symptoms; that will help his diagnosis. But that mechanic will not appreciate being told what to do by an amateur.
If you want the job done right, trust your professional.
There are three primal urges in human beings: Food, sex, and rewriting someone else’s play.
Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.
Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.
If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it.
Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.
Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
No writer has ever yet been known to hang himself as long as he had another chapter left.
If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages.
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

























