Aaron Sorkin Quotes

Writing film scripts is the hardest thing in the world. A script has to go to five or six drafts, and you need the feedback of other people and to keep coming back with a fresh eye, honing it down.

I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay.

When I write a screenplay, and when I direct, I always pull lines out.

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

Writing a really good screenplay is not easy. It can be a very punishing form.

As a director, you want to work with great writers.

My approach to making movies is different than other people, because I just write a lot of screenplays. I'm constantly writing screenplays.

It's fun to improvise, but I still think it's better to have a great script, you know, like a Charlie Kaufman script.

One day I had an idea for a movie. Everything came after that.

I get a script and it's really interesting with scripts, because you never really know. It's paper and it could be great or awful. Even scripts that are good could end up not working.

Once, I optioned a novel and tried to do a screenplay on it, which was great fun, but I was too respectful. I was only 100 pages into the novel and I had about 90 pages of movie script going. I realized I had a lot to learn.

The technology available for film-making now is incredible, but I am a big believer that it's all in the story.

Directing was easy for me because I was a writer director and did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay.

So with 'There Will Be Blood,' I didn't even really feel like I was adapting a book. I was just desperate to find stuff to write.

Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.

I wrote the screenplay for 'This Is Where I Leave You' - all 40 drafts of it.

We all write, but the script is a blueprint. We can lose whole scenes when we're shooting.

'The Full Monty' was my first feature script, and I wasn't that skilled at it.

No other aspect of filmmaking has tempted me to do a film other than the script and the story itself.

High-concept one-liners were huge when I got my start in the film industry.

When I'm writing a first draft of a script, I can disappear into that for two, three months exclusively.

I went to journalism school, so sometimes writing the script of 'Being Mary Jane' is me putting my journalism hat on.

I'm just a sucker for a good script and people that are passionate about it. I love independents.

I always feel like a script is a recipe, and then you bring the elements into the recipe, and you cook with it.

Film-makers are greedy people - we want good stories and good subjects.