Tabu Quotes

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

I don't hold with the notion that only bad books make good movies.

If I'm in the bookstore, and I see a 700-page novel, my first thought is, 'Ooh, how could you cut this down to size and make a movie out of it?'

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.

It's a project that touched me as an immigrant and as a New Yorker.

I've made seventeen or eighteen films now, only two of which have been original screenplays, all the others have been based on short stories or novels, and I find the long short story ideal for adaptation.

America is remarkable, don't you think so? When I came to Washington, I was twelve years old. I spoke English with an English accent. It was assumed that it would go on in that way.

I have a lot of real life experience that I can draw on. And I think that shows in the characters that I play because I'm always trying to find somebody - or find characters to play that I can identify with on a personal level or relate to. And I think it makes for a little bit more of an honest portrayal.

I felt like I haven't had the typical experience of a novelist whose book becomes a movie.

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

There is a lot of my childhood in 'The Sandcastle Girls.'

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.

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 think you are doing a disservice to a novel just by transposing it wholesale onto the screen, because it doesn't work. They are completely different beasts.

I've seen movies that are slavishly devoted to books but don't work because they haven't turned it into a movie: they've turned it into a dramatisation of the different scenes.

I had a strong visceral reaction to the 'Moonlight' script, partly because I felt I knew all of these characters.

My dad read 'The Danish Girl' and fell in love with it. He told me, 'You need to do this film.'

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

I am more South African than Pakistani now. It's a great country, and I have met so many nice people.

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.

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.

Adaptation of books is never a success. When the author wants to make it, it's even worse.

We're just like a movie based on a book-- almost, but not quite as good.

Immigration is not an issue that I read about in the newspaper or watch a documentary on PBS or CNN. It's an issues I've lived around my whole life. My family are immigrants. My wife's family are immigrants. All of my neighbors are immigrants.