Screenplay Quotes

This is not a screenplay. I don't do twenty drafts. I'm not going to show this to you until it's published or accepted for publication. You can make whatever suggestions you want, but I probably will ignore them entirely. (Robert B. Parker)
There's nothing more important in making movies than the screenplay. View quote
Richard Attenborough
I'm working on a screenplay right now for the BBC, but I hope to have the decks cleared soon so I can get into the studio with my pals and put down some more tracks, try to get a strong dance single together. View quote
Irvine Welsh
Whether I'm in front of the camera, behind the camera, at my computer writing a novel or a screenplay, as long as I get to entertain someone out there, I'm happy. View quote
Chris Colfer
Acting is fun and I refuse to get involved in the semantics and the politics of strategy and breaking out of something or doing something because you need to do something else. For me it's all about what fuels my soul and if I'm passionate about a screenplay then that's what I'll do next. View quote
Shailene Woodley
It's much like writing a screenplay with someone else and that's how we view it, I think. View quote
Christopher Darden
A stage play requires very different craft from a book, fiction or otherwise, and ditto from a screenplay. View quote
Dirk Benedict
Writing a screenplay is like writing a big puzzle, and so the hardest part, I think, is getting the story. View quote
Grant Heslov
Although there was a screenplay, the actors never knew what questions I was going to ask them, and all of my character's voice-over narration and scenes were added after the fact. View quote
Griffin Dunne
The first comedy screenplay that I wrote was Animal House and I always thought I could and should be a director but no one was about to give me that opportunity on Animal House. View quote
Harold Ramis
Revising a screenplay is much more frustrating than revising a song because you have to read through the entire work again while you are changing stuff. It is a lot easier to edit a song. (Kelly Jones)
I like to begin every screenplay with a burst of delusional self-confidence. It tends to fade pretty quickly, but (for me, at least) there doesn't seem to be any other way to start writing a script. View quote
Michael Arndt
A screenplay is not a finished product; a novel is. A screenplay is a blueprint for something - for a building that will most likely never be built. View quote
Nicholas Meyer
I did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay. It was probably harder for a regular director. He probably had to read the script the night before shooting started. View quote
Preston Sturges
Getting your screenplay right is the most important thing you'll ever do on your film. View quote
Yahoo Serious
Mostly, you write a script and someone's gonna rewrite you. They get hundreds of-not hundred but they get ten writers to write something. If you have a big budget, you can go and get a lot of people to write on script .... I just actually heard that somebody said, 'Well, your screenplay got bought and now someone like Carrie Fisher will come in and rewrite you.' And I feel terrible, you know, because that's not what I mean to do. My idea was never to raid something and trash it, you know. ‘Cause that – that's more work for me! View quote
Carrie Fisher
We began talking about the characters and he opened up about his vision. He's extremely thoughtful and sees grand issues both social and political in an interesting way. Quite honestly, I wasn't certain how some of his ideas were applicable to the screenplay, but he was heartfelt and adamant about them. And I remember completely going with it. View quote
Madeleine Stowe
A movie should present its characters with a problem and then watch them solve it, not without difficulty. So says an old and reliable screenplay formula. Countless movies have been made about a boy and a girl who have a problem (they haven't slept with each other) and after difficulties (family, war, economic, health, rival lover, stupid misunderstanding) they solve it by sleeping with each other. Now we have a movie about two homosexuals that follows the same reliable convention. View quote
Roger Ebert
The beautiful Monique insists on joining their expedition and cannot be dissuaded; we think at first she has a nefarious motive, but no, she's probably taken a class in screenplay construction and knows that the film requires a sexy female lead. This could be the first case in cinematic history of a character voluntarily entering a movie because of the objective fact that she is required. View quote
Roger Ebert
I moved into directing for a couple of reasons. ... Most directors, I discovered, need to be convinced that the screenplay they're going to direct has something to do with them. And this is a tricky thing if you write screenplays where women have parts that are equal to or greater than the male part. And I thought, "Why am I out there looking for directors?" - because you look at a list of directors, it's all boys. It certainly was when I started as a screenwriter. So I thought, "I'm just gonna become a director and that'll make it easier." View quote
Nora Ephron
I am co-writing a screenplay now and I'm working on the rights to another story I want to do. So I plan to produce and direct. So, for me, I don't really feel that I am vulnerable to that sad baggage that comes with the business of filmmaking. (Kerry Washington)
You sell a screenplay like you sell a car. If someone drives it off a cliff, that's it. View quote
Rita Mae Brown
The best articles about Vincent Gallo were written by Vincent Gallo, the best acting performance of Vincent Gallo was directed and edited by Vincent Gallo from a screenplay written by Vincent Gallo, even the best photographs of Vincent Gallo were taken by Vincent Gallo. View quote
Vincent Gallo
I'm working on a screenplay of Fahrenheit 451 that will star Mel Gibson. It will be better than the original because they left a lot of things out of the first film. ... It works even better because we have political correctness now. Political correctness is the real enemy these days. The black groups want to control our thinking and you can't say certain things. The homosexual groups don't want you to criticize them. It's thought control and freedom of speech control. View quote
Ray Bradbury
Music earlier used to be an integral part of the film. The background score and the songs were as important, to take the story forward as were the screenplay and dialogues. View quote
Waheeda Rehman