Frank Oz Quotes

I very rarely read a script that I don't feel I want to change a lot.

I generally edit quite heavily. In general, there aren't many scenes that are sitting where they sat in the script in the final form.

I'm used to changing a lot of the dialogue. But if I feel like the script is working, I don't want to mess with it.

The key is, if you're not monkeying around with the script, then everything usually goes pretty well.

But the longer I'm in the business, you see a lot of times these screenplays have been rewritten 5 times and you're not really offending an author.

Writers are not always right however, but then again, I've been on shows where the actors have complete control and change everything and it's terrible.

I find that when you read a script, or rewrite something, or look at something that's been gone over, you can tell, like rings on a tree, by how bad it is, how long it's been in development.

The first draft of 'Ex Machina' is extremely different than the finished film. That would be like 10% of the original draft stayed into the shooting script.

You have to constantly work on your script if it needs it. You don't accept, 'Oh, I did a draft and...' No, it's your responsibility to work on the script as much as possible and make it better and better.

I edit as I write. I revise endlessly. I don't go forward until I know that what I've written is as good as I can make it.

You hate to see yourself do one draft of a script and then have somebody else come back in and change what you've done.

And then the really awful thing is that at the end of the day after crying and experiencing things, then you look at what you've written and you're like, 'Hmm, there's half a page that's good here.' Then you throw out everything else.

I am not very good at sticking to outlines, and I double back all the time to revisit scenes and change things.

The best songwriting comes from being as creative as you can and editing it down to the good bits, essentially.

Writing is probably one-fifth coming up with the stuff, and four-fifths self-editing again and again and again.

If you're writing a screenplay, you need to be prepared to let go: there's a good chance the words you write aren't going to be the ones that end up on screen.

We taped all this and then got it transcribed and picked the best lines or ideas or ways to take a scene. I've done that many times, and it can improve the script but also wreck a perfectly good scene.

Nothing you write, if you hope to be good, will ever come out as you first hoped.

I haven't had trouble with writer's block. I think it's because my process involves writing very badly. My first drafts are filled with lurching, cliched writing, outright flailing around. Writing that doesn't have a good voice or any voice. But then there will be good moments.

I allowed the scriptwriter to come to my parties for research and it's a good thing he did otherwise I don't think Personal Services would've been so good.

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 rewrite my books many times before submitting them, and after my editor takes a look I wind up rewriting some more! It's a good thing I learned at an early age to keep on trying. Stick to it, and eventually you'll get there.

The script for 'Thirteen' is tight, and not because of the now-famous six day writing spree, but more because it started out as 15 pages longer.

It often takes a couple of years to get a script right and then takes a couple of years to get financing together.

Yes, I did some rewrites of the show as some of the stuff was not very good and I worked my butt off to make it something that the audience liked and that I could be proud of.