Anthony Minghella Quotes

I'm also a huge cinephile, and I have witnessed that to honor the book literally word-for-word never makes a good movie.

I know a movie and a book are two different things and you are going do different media in different ways. No author can want a movie to be exactly like the book because then it will be a bad movie.

By the usual reckoning, the worst books make the best films.

The novel succeeds on terms exclusive to literature. A good film succeeds on terms exclusive to the cinema. That's why so many bad novels can become good movies, like 'Jaws' or 'The Godfather.'

There is a sort of theory that you should adapt bad books because they always make more successful films.

You take some creative license when you make a movie, and things can be a little bit different.

I can't think of any one film that improved on a good novel, but I can think of many good films that came from very bad novels.

Movies can't ruin books. They can only ruin movies.

I do not mean for one second to suggest that 'White Doves at Morning' was written with a movie deal in mind. Certainly not.

If you take a really good book, then the potential is for a really good film. But you've got to get it right.

Most writers are unhappy with film adaptations of their work, and rightly so. 'Field of Dreams,' however, caught the spirit and essence of 'Shoeless Joe' while making the necessary changes to make the work more visual.

As an author, you can't expect a movie to be an illustration of the book. If that's what you hope for, you shouldn't sell the rights.

When you're lucky enough to have a good film made of your novel - and 'Never Let Me Go' is, believe me, a heartbreakingly good film indeed - you get wonderfully talented individuals each focusing on their special area.

Particularly when you're making a movie of a book, people are always waiting with their knives - you know?

You have plausible deniability, as they say in politics, as an author with movies. Because if the movie is terrible, you simply say they failed to catch the genius of the book.

People think, 'Oh, well how can 'The Hobbit,' which is one book, become three films?' But you can take one line from an appendice and it turns into a whole sequence.

For me, the reason to make the movie is that if people like the comic, then people would like the movie if it was well made. There are good movies for them, but very few. And I mean that in a true sense. If they love your story for freaking 30 years, then they can do a movie about it.

Movies are not novels, and that's why, when filmmakers try to adapt novels, particularly long or complex novels, the result is almost always failure. It can't be done.

It is customary for the writer to sneer that Hollywood has traduced their book. Well, I adore my film.

I think it's always a challenge to adapt a beautiful literary work into a fresh and alive film.

When a movie based on a book comes out, people always say that the book is always better than the movie. So I'm always interested in reading the book, too.

Polar' is based on the first and a little bit on the second book and all the characters from those novels are in there. The story is based on the graphic novel, but when it came to the execution of the film I felt I couldn't really make a movie without any dialogue.

I think book adaptations, the best one to me is like 'Brokeback Mountain.' Which is a short story, 21 pages, that expands so beautifully into a movie.

It is a challenging task to adapt a book to screen presentation and you will not be able to satisfy those who read the classic novel.

As far as books getting turned into movies, I fared very, very well.