Barry Levinson Quotes

I don't know if I'm always going to be acting. Maybe when I grow up, I will be a scriptwriter. I already have a few scripts in my head.

I'm pursuing film and TV, and it's exciting because I feel I can write in almost any genre now.

I don't aspire to direct like many actors. I would aspire most likely to do some writing, but I haven't had a chance to do that.

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

The strangest thing about writing a sitcom, is never knowing if it will become anything but words on a page.

I'll never be a TV writer.

I have this TV pilot I was writing for and a couple of films. It's just a different way to express myself.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

I got it into my head that I was going to be starring in movies that I wrote, so that's what I did. I stopped acting in all things, and I wrote my first script, which was optioned a week after I finished it.

I'm a Hollywood writer, so I put on my sports jacket and take off my brain.

I didn't know anything about writers. It never occurred to me they were regular people and that I could grow up to become one, even though I loved to make up stories inside my head.

I feel like I work on scripts for comedy as well as dramatic stuff the same.

I like to begin every screenplay with a burst of delusional self-confidence. It tends to fade pretty quickly, but (for me, at least) there doesn't seem to be any other way to start writing a script.

The most despised sector of Hollywood are the writers. A good writer is quickly promoted to a 'concept man' - and then a producer - because he's too valuable to simply be a writer.

I did six series for the BBC and that was enough. I've been writing for ten years, which is more challenging artistically.

I started writing because I wanted to write scripts, but I wasn't very good at it. Then I started writing short stories, sort of as treatments for the film scripts, and I found I enjoyed writing short stories far more than I enjoyed writing film scripts. Then the short stories got longer and longer and suddenly, I had novels.

In high school, I wanted to be an actress. Until I got to college and took some creative writing courses. Then I decided I wanted to become a novelist.

I've been a screenwriter for twenty-five years. Every one of my books have been optioned for movies and I have written a few of those screenplays.

I always write the script by myself.

Screenwriting is a much more collaborative effort. When you write a novel, it's just you, with input from your editor.

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

Lots of shows are written completely in the writer's room. And I wouldn't say 'The Walking Dead' is that way. There are three levels to it. There's us in the room. The writers going off by themselves. And me working with the writers on a finished script.

Because I'm such a creative person, and I've always got my nose in a book, I suppose it was only a matter of time before non-fiction turned into fiction again. But I never consciously set out to become a writer and I never thought I'd be doing the things I'm doing today.

Since signing with Universal, I have been working closely with Gary Ross, the director, producer and screenwriter. We have spent many hours on the phone, and I've been sending him information and items that have been useful to the writing process.

I've continued to write fiction since being in television. TV is a different kind of writing, but it's all writing. It was David Milch of 'Deadwood' who helped me to see it that way. We later collaborated on the short-lived 'John from Cincinnati,' but I'm very proud of the work we did together.