Screenwriting Quotes

I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it! (Paul Schrader)
I think, in a weird way, the reason I was drawn to screenwriting and the reason I really love doing it is because I love writing dialogue. View quote
David Benioff
Screenwriting is always about what people say or do, whereas good writing is about a thought process or an abstract image or an internal monologue, none of which works on screen. View quote
David Nicholls
For me, screenwriting is all about setting characters in motion and as a writer just chasing them. They should tell you what they'll do in any scene you put them in. View quote
Justin Zackham
I want to get off with the screenwriting. View quote
Obie Trice
For me, as a writer who comes from quite a naturalistic tradition, British screenwriting is quite delicate, quite small, and rarified in a way. View quote
Simon Beaufoy
The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement. View quote
Raymond Chandler
Screenwriting is a much more collaborative effort. When you write a novel, it's just you, with input from your editor. View quote
Meg Cabot
I find playwriting to be incredibly difficult compared to screenwriting. Part of it is that I grew up watching movies and not watching plays. View quote
Zoe Kazan
I don't think screenwriting is therapeutic. It's actually really, really hard for me. It's not an enjoyable process. View quote
Charlie Kaufman
I think if I've worked anything through with screenwriting it's that I'm not going to be able to work anything through. (Charlie Kaufman)
I've always been a writer, I've always been a storyteller, but I never thought about screenwriting. View quote
Diablo Cody
I don't mind doing scripted material. It's actually kind of a relief, because improvising is a little bit like screenwriting on your feet. View quote
John C. Reilly
I tend to jot down moments, lines, interactions that don't really make any sense. I try and explain these scattered notes to my close friends, and they become more and more logical. I see screenwriting as a bit like a math equation which I have to solve. View quote
Asghar Farhadi
I first came to cinema as a passionate filmgoer, when I was a child. Then, when I was a very young man, I became a film critic precisely because of my knowledge of cinema. I did better than others because of this. Then I moved on to screenwriting. I wrote a film with Sergio Leone, 'Once Upon a Time in the West.' And then I moved to directing. View quote
Dario Argento
I didn't write 'Snow White' for any class, but I got bitten by the screenwriting bug and wrote a couple of scripts in my spare time instead of going to keg parties or something. View quote
Evan Daugherty
I was about 14 when I started with a theater group; it was like a stage group on the weekends alongside school. And it was run by a group of guys who'd been to drama school themselves in London. So they introduced us to techniques that they'd learn about, and they kind of informed us about improvisation and screenwriting and all of that stuff. View quote
Imogen Poots
Filmmaking is a very complex form - ya know, acting, lighting, screenwriting, storytelling, music, editing - all these things have to come together. View quote
Jay Duplass
I had always been interested in screenwriting, ever since I could write things down as a child. Obviously, I started as an actor, professionally, but screenwriting was always something that I had a great interest in. View quote
John Francis Daley
The history of screenwriting - of what we do - is more than 100 years old. It's thousands of years old, going back to Sophocles and Euripedes. I believe the only - the only - separation for being a dramatist is reading drama. View quote
John Logan
I find that screenwriting is at best kind of a hackwork in some ways. (John Milius)
Working at Pixar has been like my graduate school for screenwriting. View quote
Michael Arndt
Even with college, the reason I wanted to go so badly is because I wanted to major in film. I want to take screenwriting classes and learn more about behind the scenes stuff, because I love people like Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig who are able to write a lot of their own material and be so involved in everything they do. View quote
Miranda Cosgrove
Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out. View quote
Paul Thomas Anderson
I'm very lucky. I actually like screenwriting. I rarely feel a sense of doom going to my desk. View quote
Simon Beaufoy