20th-century Screenwriter Quotes

My corn I take serious because it's my corn, and my potatoes and my tomatoes and fences I take note of because they're mine. But this war is not mine and I take no note of it!

James Lee Barrett

My point about alcohol is that if you abuse something, it abuses you back.

I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings. I am admitting this only because I have made a deal with God. Spare me, I said, and I will try to stop others from committing the same crimes I did.

As time passes we all get better at blazing a trail through the thicket of advice.

The future is now. It's time to grow up and be strong. Tomorrow may well be too late.

Don't listen to the politicians, always look at the artists, they're the first to tell us where we're going.

Mark Mills (writer)

Despite appearances, puzzling is not a solitary game: every move the puzzler makes, the puzzlemaker has made before; every piece the puzzler picks up, and picks up again, and studies and strokes, every combination he tries, and tries a second time, every blunder and every insight, each hope and each discouragement have all been designed, calculated, and decided by the other.

Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.

Lord Farquaad speaking

Ted Elliott (screenwriter)

His name was Rambo, and he was just some nothing kid for all anybody knew, standing by the pump of a gas station at the outskirts of Madison, Kentucky.

Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited. Tell me.

And the most dangerous place on earth— Is where you're safe.

He was a king and a god in the world he knew, but now he comes to civilization merely a captive—a show to gratify your curiosity. Ladies and gentlemen, look at Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World!

James Ashmore Creelman

I think fear neutralizes alcohol, weakens its anesthetic power. It's good for small fears; your boss, your wife, your bills, your dentist; all right then to take a drink. But for big ones it doesn't do any good. Like water on blazing gasoline, it will only quicken and compound it. It takes sand, in the literal and the slang sense, to smother the bonfire that is fear. And if you're out of sand, then you must burn up.

Cornell Woolrich

His face was a frame of strong brutal bones, so hard, the set of his jaw so aggressive, that it brought to mind Teuton warriors, shouts, winging of axes, berserk.

Alexander Baron

But I think Cybil was my biggest fan. She cut out my articles and hung them in her locker and we were always cracking up how if you wrote the simplest, most obvious thing in the world people thought you were a genius.

I have always hated crowds. I like deserts, prisons, and monasteries. I have discovered, too, that there are fewer idiots at 3000 meters above sea level than down below.

It's definitely best for little children to have a regular life, especially if they can regulate it themselves.

Astrid Lindgren

There are no available men in their thirties in New York. Giuliani had them removed along with the homeless.

Michael Patrick King

Sometimes when a man is dying, he directs that his body shall be given to doctors, so that the causes of his suffering and death may be investigated, and the knowledge used to help others. I cannot give my body yet; only my heart and my mind, trusting that by this gift I can give some hope and courage to other men like myself, and to the rest of the world some understanding.

Peter Wildeblood

Editing is not merely a method of the junction of separate scenes or pieces, but is a method that controls the 'psychological guidance' of the spectator.

Vsevolod Pudovkin

To be famous is to be stuck in an inflexible place. But at least it is to be stuck with money.

Don't forgive and never forget; do unto others before they do unto you; and third and most importantly, keep your eye on your friends, because your enemies will take care of themselves.

I learned long ago to never be disappointed by people. Especially politicians.

All men who first touch with words go much further afterwards with their hands.

Antonio Skarmeta

I guess I think that films have to be made totally by fascists – there's no room for democracy in making film.

D. A. Pennebaker