We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.
Every scene should be able to answer three questions: “Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don’t get it? Why now?
People may or may not say what they mean... but they always say something designed to get what they want.
Always be closing.
Being a writer in Hollywood is like going to Hitler’s Eagle Nest with a great idea for a bar mitzvah.
Encounter: Doubt, Shame, Humiliation. It will finally be worth it. Acting is more about courage than anything else.
A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.
Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next.
Having spent too many years in show business, the one thing I see that succeeds is persistence. It’s the person who just ain’t gonna go home. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to go home. This is what I’ll be doing until they put me in jail or in a coffin.
Train yourself for a profession that does not exist.
Opportunity may knock, but it seldom nags.
When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.
The subject of drama is The Lie. At the end of the drama THE TRUTH – which has been overlooked, disregarded, scorned, and denied – prevails. And that is how we know the Drama is done.
There’s no such thing as talent; you just have to work hard enough.
When you come into the theatre, you have to be willing to say, ‘We’re all here to undergo a communion, to find out what the hell is going on in this world.’ If you’re not willing to say that, what you get is entertainment instead of art, and poor entertainment at that.
The greater the intellect, the more ease in its misdirection.
Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.
The audience perceives only what the actor wants to do to the other actor.
Roll back the clock, and every possession of every great country started with a crime.