Lee Child Quotes

A lot of books, if you take them at face value, they're just not gonna work as films.

The fundamental difficulty that most novelists face when they are trying to adapt their own book into a screenplay is realizing that a screenplay is a completely different way of storytelling, and it has limitations.

Writing a novel is so hard, and there are so many problems that the last thing you're thinking about is adapting this mess you have on your hands as a movie. You just want to get it to work as a novel. That's your main focus.

It's hard to see a film that's been made from a book that you really loved because it's such a different experience.

The job of the screenplay is to identify and extract the essence of the story from the novel and reconfigure it for the screen, maintaining its essence in a different vehicle.

I don't think I'm the right man to adapt a book.

Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.

Hope E. L .James doesn't think I'm being a prankster. I really want to adapt her novels for the screen. Christian Grey is a writer's dream.

The success of the movie industry comes from the story. And the story comes from somebody putting something down on paper.

As a filmmaker, you have to understand the essence of the book and tell the story you want to see on the screen, and hopefully please yourself - because you can't possibly please everyone.

Turning one's novel into a movie script is rather like making a series of sketches for a painting that has long ago been finished and framed.

I firmly believe that you can't get a good movie without risking a bad movie. A good adaptation of your book is worth it because it is such a wonderful experience to see your world translated onto the screen.

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

Personally, I'm a big reader, and I've never wanted any of my favorite novels to be made into movies.

I always try to make the setting fit the story I have in mind.

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 used to adapting my novels for feature film - it can be challenging to cut and compress three or four hundred pages into two hours of dramatic action.

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.

A friend of mine, Neil Gaiman, had the film rights to his book 'Stardust' bought by producer Matthew Vaughn and suggested I adapt it for the screen.

Most authors would love to see their characters made for the screen, especially one that's quite colourful.

Adapting a book doesn't mean the book stops just because you've made a film out of it.

There will be great books. There will be great films. Sometimes, if we are lucky, the two will intersect.

Not all stories are meant for the big screen.

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

I try to picture my books being acted out.