Quotes About Writing & Rewriting
Over the last five years I've written probably ten screenplays and 1917 is the first one that's got made. It's really, really hard to make a film. Even when I write on my own, I still collaborate. It's usually with other writers that I know. You're always asking other people to read your work. I think if you don't want to collaborate you shouldn't be a screenwriter. You should go and be an author.
Krysty Wilson-Cairns, Screenwriter
1917, Last Night in Soho, Penny Dreadful
I’ve always felt that with writing, the whole point of putting something down on paper is that you write it and then you read what you’ve written and start to pick up little breadcrumb traces in what you’re actually after. You start to build on those, and then you begin to realize what it is you were doing in the first place. Sometimes you have this idea of what you’re going after, but the most interesting ideas, the ones that really take you by surprise, are the ones being cooked up below the immediate level of consciousness.
Tony Kushner, Playwright/Screenwriter
Angels in America, Munich, Lincoln
Every scene has to be good. You work and work and work. You torture yourself rewriting the script.
Nora Ephron, Screenwriter/Novelist
When Harry Meets Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Silkwood, Julie & Julia
To write is to rewrite.
Kenya Barris, Writer/Producer/Showrunner
Black-ish, Girls Trip, Grown-ish, Barbershop: The Next Cut
If people have a planet exploding in one movie, they try to have three planets explode in the next one – and it just doesn’t work that way. That’s not spectacular. What’s spectacular – and very hard to do – is make people care. I love great special effects as much as anybody. But it’s hard to worry about a fireball is you don’t care about the person running from it.
Brad Bird, Writer/Director
The Incredibles, Ratatouille, The Iron Giant
This was a passion project. It was something that I put my love into. I put my soul into it. Keep taking chances, take big risks, put your love into it. It does pay off.”
Jordan Peele, Writer/Director -- Talking about Get Out in his acceptance speech to Writer’s Guild of America, West for Best Original Screenplay 2017.
Often as we were writing, we would realize that just because a moment had resonance to our lives personally, that didn’t mean that seeing a re-creation of that moment would communicate that resonance to the audience. We had to dig down into what those moments meant to us and what emotions they evoked, and then craft scenes that would accomplish the same thing, just more cinematically.
Emily Gordon, Screenwriter
The Big Sick
Rewriting isn't just about dialogue; it's the order of the scenes, how you finish a scene, how you get into a scene.
Tom Stoddard, Playwright/Screenwriter
Shakespeare in Love, Empire of The Sun
Rewriting is when writing really gets to be fun.... In baseball you only get three swings and you're out. In rewriting, you get almost as many swings as you want and you know, sooner or later, you'll hit the ball.
Neil Simon, Playwright/Screenwriter
The Odd Couple, The Out of Towners, The Heartbreak Kid
As a writer there is always that feeling of fraud--that you are going to be found out, so get it out there before you are.
Kenya Barris, Writer/Producer/Showrunner
Black-ish, Girls Trip, Grown-ish, Barbershop: The Next Cut
I’m a really big fan of shitty first drafts. I just plow through a first draft, because the real writing is definitely the rewriting. So I just like to get things down and get through that first draft.
Barry Jenkins, Writer/Director
Moonlight
I was starving for more stories that focused on the women, stories that had little or nothing to do with who she was romantically linked with, and everything to do with her figuring life out.
Kay Cannon, Screenwriter
Girlboss, Pitch Perfect, 30 Rock
You must write the script many times before you make the film, but that doesn’t mean it stops getting written once you make the film.
David O Russell, Writer/Director
Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Joy
As a writer, you can’t judge the character. You have to be able to find something about them that you can identify with that’s like you.
Aaron Sorkin, Screenwriter
The Social Network, Steve Jobs
Every good screenwriter that I know of spends an awful lot of time rewriting.
Robert Towne, Writer/Director
Chinatown, Without Limits, Mission Impossible
Keep your hands moving. Writing is rewriting. Trust me and see.
August Wilson, Playwright
Fences, The Piano Lesson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
The key is to find the spine, and that’s not easy; you have to look and look and look, and it may take months – but once I do, I put a piece of paper on my wall with about twenty-five or thirty words that describe what the movie is about.
William Goldman, Screenwriter
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, All The President's Men
My writing is a process of rewriting, of going back and changing and filling in. In the rewriting process you discover what's going on, and you go back and bring it up to that point.
Joan Didion, Novelist
Play It As It Lays, The Year of Magical Thinking
A screenplay is about distilling the essence of a story and its characters. You really have to find the heart and soul of your story and hew to it.
Ron Bass, Screenwriter
Rain Man, My Best Friend's Wedding, Snow Falling On Cedars
I tend to do a lot of drafts, which has the effect of making the script more and more specific, because it gets more specific each time. Usually by the time I give it to the producer or director, I’m six or seven drafts in – and that’s when the script really begins to open up and take shape as a film.
Frank Pierson, Screenwriter
Cool Hand Luke, Dog Day Afternoon, Mad Men
I write the movie that I would like to go see, as opposed to writing the movie that someone else would like me to write.
Alan Ball, Screenwriter
American Beauty, Six Feet Under, True Blood
As a writer, as a storyteller, you have to have your emotions close, and the older I've gotten, the less I've worried about not displaying emotions.
John Ridley, Screenwriter
12 Years A Slave, American Crime
To make a great film you need three things—the script, the script, and the script.
Alfred Hitchcock, Director,
Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho
Mavis is a projection of my worse self. I’m a woman in my 30’s who writes about teenagers, who has been accused of being immature and emotionally stunted. And I’m guilty of some compulsive, vindictive behaviors. I saw myself in her, but I thought, ‘What’s the worst possible version of that?’ It was really cathartic to write that character and to channel bad qualities into someone who had no filter.
Diablo Cody, Screenwriter,
Juno, Young Adult, Tara
I think the notion of writing a script that is complete and then you just shoot it exactly as written, I don't think so much happens, it's such a collaborative process -- and I also think movies and any sort of collaborative venture, it takes on a life of its own at some point, and you have to be able to recognize that and step back, and I think you have to be willing to make changes along the way. And I think a lot of writing gets done in the editing room too.
Alan Ball, Screenwriter
American Beauty, Six Feet Under, True Blood
Film's thought as a director's medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It's that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot -- the telephone book? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they've had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.
Billy Wilder, Writer/Director
Double Indemnity, The Apartment, Some Like It Hot
I don't believe in writer's block. I don't know that that is. There are just certain little areas that I know I"m going to get through. It's just a matter of finding a way.
Elmore Leonard, Novelist
Get Shorty, Mr. Majestic, 3:10 To Yuma
You want a drama to center around a small number of conflicts and work through those.
Tony Kushner, Playwright/Screenwriter
Angels in America, Munich, Lincoln
If you don’t fall in love with the character you’re lost. I don’t care how big the explosions are.
Jerry Bruckheimer, Producer
Top Gun, Black Hawk Down, Pirates of the Carribean
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.
Robert Cromier, Novelist
We all Fall Down, The Chocolate War
Krysty Wilson-Cairns, Screenwriter
1917, Last Night in Soho, Penny Dreadful
I’ve always felt that with writing, the whole point of putting something down on paper is that you write it and then you read what you’ve written and start to pick up little breadcrumb traces in what you’re actually after. You start to build on those, and then you begin to realize what it is you were doing in the first place. Sometimes you have this idea of what you’re going after, but the most interesting ideas, the ones that really take you by surprise, are the ones being cooked up below the immediate level of consciousness.
Tony Kushner, Playwright/Screenwriter
Angels in America, Munich, Lincoln
Every scene has to be good. You work and work and work. You torture yourself rewriting the script.
Nora Ephron, Screenwriter/Novelist
When Harry Meets Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Silkwood, Julie & Julia
To write is to rewrite.
Kenya Barris, Writer/Producer/Showrunner
Black-ish, Girls Trip, Grown-ish, Barbershop: The Next Cut
If people have a planet exploding in one movie, they try to have three planets explode in the next one – and it just doesn’t work that way. That’s not spectacular. What’s spectacular – and very hard to do – is make people care. I love great special effects as much as anybody. But it’s hard to worry about a fireball is you don’t care about the person running from it.
Brad Bird, Writer/Director
The Incredibles, Ratatouille, The Iron Giant
This was a passion project. It was something that I put my love into. I put my soul into it. Keep taking chances, take big risks, put your love into it. It does pay off.”
Jordan Peele, Writer/Director -- Talking about Get Out in his acceptance speech to Writer’s Guild of America, West for Best Original Screenplay 2017.
Often as we were writing, we would realize that just because a moment had resonance to our lives personally, that didn’t mean that seeing a re-creation of that moment would communicate that resonance to the audience. We had to dig down into what those moments meant to us and what emotions they evoked, and then craft scenes that would accomplish the same thing, just more cinematically.
Emily Gordon, Screenwriter
The Big Sick
Rewriting isn't just about dialogue; it's the order of the scenes, how you finish a scene, how you get into a scene.
Tom Stoddard, Playwright/Screenwriter
Shakespeare in Love, Empire of The Sun
Rewriting is when writing really gets to be fun.... In baseball you only get three swings and you're out. In rewriting, you get almost as many swings as you want and you know, sooner or later, you'll hit the ball.
Neil Simon, Playwright/Screenwriter
The Odd Couple, The Out of Towners, The Heartbreak Kid
As a writer there is always that feeling of fraud--that you are going to be found out, so get it out there before you are.
Kenya Barris, Writer/Producer/Showrunner
Black-ish, Girls Trip, Grown-ish, Barbershop: The Next Cut
I’m a really big fan of shitty first drafts. I just plow through a first draft, because the real writing is definitely the rewriting. So I just like to get things down and get through that first draft.
Barry Jenkins, Writer/Director
Moonlight
I was starving for more stories that focused on the women, stories that had little or nothing to do with who she was romantically linked with, and everything to do with her figuring life out.
Kay Cannon, Screenwriter
Girlboss, Pitch Perfect, 30 Rock
You must write the script many times before you make the film, but that doesn’t mean it stops getting written once you make the film.
David O Russell, Writer/Director
Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Joy
As a writer, you can’t judge the character. You have to be able to find something about them that you can identify with that’s like you.
Aaron Sorkin, Screenwriter
The Social Network, Steve Jobs
Every good screenwriter that I know of spends an awful lot of time rewriting.
Robert Towne, Writer/Director
Chinatown, Without Limits, Mission Impossible
Keep your hands moving. Writing is rewriting. Trust me and see.
August Wilson, Playwright
Fences, The Piano Lesson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
The key is to find the spine, and that’s not easy; you have to look and look and look, and it may take months – but once I do, I put a piece of paper on my wall with about twenty-five or thirty words that describe what the movie is about.
William Goldman, Screenwriter
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, All The President's Men
My writing is a process of rewriting, of going back and changing and filling in. In the rewriting process you discover what's going on, and you go back and bring it up to that point.
Joan Didion, Novelist
Play It As It Lays, The Year of Magical Thinking
A screenplay is about distilling the essence of a story and its characters. You really have to find the heart and soul of your story and hew to it.
Ron Bass, Screenwriter
Rain Man, My Best Friend's Wedding, Snow Falling On Cedars
I tend to do a lot of drafts, which has the effect of making the script more and more specific, because it gets more specific each time. Usually by the time I give it to the producer or director, I’m six or seven drafts in – and that’s when the script really begins to open up and take shape as a film.
Frank Pierson, Screenwriter
Cool Hand Luke, Dog Day Afternoon, Mad Men
I write the movie that I would like to go see, as opposed to writing the movie that someone else would like me to write.
Alan Ball, Screenwriter
American Beauty, Six Feet Under, True Blood
As a writer, as a storyteller, you have to have your emotions close, and the older I've gotten, the less I've worried about not displaying emotions.
John Ridley, Screenwriter
12 Years A Slave, American Crime
To make a great film you need three things—the script, the script, and the script.
Alfred Hitchcock, Director,
Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho
Mavis is a projection of my worse self. I’m a woman in my 30’s who writes about teenagers, who has been accused of being immature and emotionally stunted. And I’m guilty of some compulsive, vindictive behaviors. I saw myself in her, but I thought, ‘What’s the worst possible version of that?’ It was really cathartic to write that character and to channel bad qualities into someone who had no filter.
Diablo Cody, Screenwriter,
Juno, Young Adult, Tara
I think the notion of writing a script that is complete and then you just shoot it exactly as written, I don't think so much happens, it's such a collaborative process -- and I also think movies and any sort of collaborative venture, it takes on a life of its own at some point, and you have to be able to recognize that and step back, and I think you have to be willing to make changes along the way. And I think a lot of writing gets done in the editing room too.
Alan Ball, Screenwriter
American Beauty, Six Feet Under, True Blood
Film's thought as a director's medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It's that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot -- the telephone book? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they've had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.
Billy Wilder, Writer/Director
Double Indemnity, The Apartment, Some Like It Hot
I don't believe in writer's block. I don't know that that is. There are just certain little areas that I know I"m going to get through. It's just a matter of finding a way.
Elmore Leonard, Novelist
Get Shorty, Mr. Majestic, 3:10 To Yuma
You want a drama to center around a small number of conflicts and work through those.
Tony Kushner, Playwright/Screenwriter
Angels in America, Munich, Lincoln
If you don’t fall in love with the character you’re lost. I don’t care how big the explosions are.
Jerry Bruckheimer, Producer
Top Gun, Black Hawk Down, Pirates of the Carribean
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.
Robert Cromier, Novelist
We all Fall Down, The Chocolate War