Ridley Scott Quotes

I do enjoy working with writers.

I'm not a writer who refuses to talk about a book until I've finished.

I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.

I don't read books on how to write screenplays just because I'm stubborn. So it's all sort of made up.

Try writing a book, dude. That's difficult.

The writing process, it's too mysterious to try and describe.

In Hollywood the woods are full of people that learned to write but evidently can't read. If they could read their stuff, they'd stop writing.

I've been writing fiction probably since I was about 6 years old, so it's something that is second nature to me now. I just sit down and start writing. I don't sit down and start writing and it comes out perfectly - it's a process.

I have to always remember, writing is really hard.

For me now, it's about what you would write and what you wouldn't write, and that's how I select what I am going to do. It can be quite nice being brought a concept by a studio for me to work on.

Writing is really hard, and it's really a skill.

In general, when I'm writing, I concentrate on the story itself, and I leave it to other people, such as agents and publishers, to work out who it's for.

I always knew writing a novel was a great thing.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

I have a pretty big TV background, and I have clocked so many hours in so many writers' rooms over the years.

I think when you're knee-deep in coming up with editorial plans, the desire to sit down and pencil something is pretty strong.

The process of composition, messing around with paragraphs and trying to make really good prose, is hardwired into my personality.

'The Way of the Gun' I wrote in five days.

When I was 19 years old, I wrote my first book. I took a computer science class, and the book was garbage. I thought I could write a better one, so I did.

Writing a novel is not method acting and I find it easy to step out of it at cocktail hour.

Every writer has to figure out what works best - and often has to select and discard different tools before they find the one that fits.

Becoming an author changes your attitude too. Once you see where books come from, and how they're made, they never seem quite as sacred again.

The hardest single thing you do is get the bloody screenplay right.

Kids think you just sit down and start writing. I always tell them you never do that.

I've always said the hardest aspect of the job of being a writer is writing.