David Leslie Johnson Quotes

I've made up little mantras for myself, catchphrases from a screenwriting book that doesn't exist. One is 'Write the movie you'd pay to go see.' Another is 'Never let a character tell me something that the camera can show me.'

What I did was I completed the half-hour film, but before really showing it, I wrote two more sections for a potential feature film which I didn't think would really happen, but at least I had it in case.

I have stories that I'd like to maybe one day consider directing, but you need a lot of time to write and put it together.

Ensure that your script is watertight. If it's not on the page, it will never magically appear on the screen.

I want to write a film. I need to think of the right idea and focus on that; I love writing.

If the script is telling the story well, that is your inspiration, and you do not need to go somewhere else.

I like writing because when I grow up, I'm going to be a script writer and a director.

I was a history major, but that was because it took the fewest requirements of any major. In my sophomore year, I started getting back into making movies. My senior year, I took playwriting classes, and I feel like that's where I learned to be a writer.

Writing a script consumes so much of time.

It's not writing in the traditional sense, but I've always said that the writing process continues on the set and even into the editing room.

To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script.

With everything I've done from "Jackie Brown" on, I got really into really writing more prose in the - in what you're calling the stage directions, all right, and consequently my scripts have gotten bigger and bigger, and cut to "Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2."

I see myself much more as a writer/director or at least an aspiring writer/director - not necessarily in film.

Hollywood has its own way of telling stories. I was just telling stories that I was familiar with. And it's what I want to do in the future: I want to take my audio cinema and put it on the screen.

As a result of my life on the road and the increasing number of rainy afternoons in cinemas, I began to get the idea that I might write a film.

I haven't thought about getting into production. I'm interested in the creative aspect of storytelling.

It's a risk, but I'm sort of ready to let go of thinking of movies as books that you can watch. The notion of, 'If I put the narrative blocks in the right order, this will solve all of my storytelling problems.' No, it won't, and you end up with little more than books on film.

Getting your screenplay right is the most important thing you'll ever do on your film.

The whole process of making movies and writing screenplays is visceral and intuitive.

Screenwriting is the most prized of all the cinematic arts. Actually, it isn't, but it should be.

I wish I could write 'Taxi Driver,' or 'Blue Velvet,' something brave, audacious, dramatic and dark. I don't know if I have the darkness in my own soul to be able to tap into it, unfortunately.

I never have particular actors planned when I'm in the process of writing.

Taking a comic strip character is very hard to write. Because comics are meant to work in one page, to work in frames with minimalistic dialogue. And a lot of it is left to the imagination of the reader. To do that in film, you've got to be a little more explanatory. And that requires a good screenplay and good dialogue.

A script is not a piece of literature it's a process.

Acting is my first focus, but at the core, I'm a storyteller, and however that comes out is fine with me.