Debra Granik Quotes

I've sold 11 of my books to Hollywood. There are all kinds of my books on shelves in Hollywood because the scripts didn't capture the characters.

Realistically, the chance of any book becoming a film is slim.

From time to time, just about every 'Vanity Fair' writer has a chance to sell rights to an article or a book to Hollywood.

As I see it, my job has always been to champion the work of the authors I publish.

Film rights were in the offing for 'The Onion Field,' eventually made into a movie in 1979; 'The New Centurions' became a 1972 film starring George C. Scott, while 'The Blue Knight' starred William Holden in a 1973 mini-series version.

As soon as I finish a book, I sell the paperback rights to different publishers and that's where I recoup my money.

Contrary to what many writers imply about the process, nobody forces a writer to sell his work to the film industry.

You've got to do something with all the books you've read, so you might as well imagine you've optioned them.

Writing a book is not a crime.

I worked in publishing before I became an author, so I knew how a book gets made.

If your agent or publisher is jumping up and down at the thought of your novel, it's because they're picturing the movie poster on the side of the bus.

If I'm in the bookstore, and I see a 700-page novel, my first thought is, 'Ooh, how could you cut this down to size and make a movie out of it?'

My agent and I put out my proposal one Thursday afternoon in August, 1998. Publishers started bidding immediately, and that process progressed for a few days.

I've done a gazillion readings that have gone on to be movies that are made without me.

In the early 1980s, I spent a year working as an assistant at the Elaine Markson Literary Agency.

To be quite honest, I've been very blessed when I've worked with Hollywood. The studios that have purchased my work to be adapted to film have really liked the work and wanted to stay as close as they could to what the book was.

The truth is that I know very few novelists who have been satisfied with the adaptation of their books for the screen.

I think you have to have a publishing house that offers you some support.

You have to remember that in addition to running a literary agency, I am also an ebook publisher.

Everything is different - except for publishing itself: getting hold of an amazing author, working to make his or her book the best and best-looking it can be, telling the world.

Anuj Bahari has always been a really good literary agent for me. What a good agent does is that he manages many of your business aspects so you can keep your time free for writing.

If people have bought something of mine, they know by now that I will decline writing it for the movies.

I am very lucky: not very many writers can say they genuinely like the film of their book. However, I do.

Those writers that have zero say in their movie adaptations have zero say because they sell it. If you don't sell it, and you do it yourself, and you wait until the screenplay is ready, you don't have to worry about that.

I think that a really good agent should be able to get the right publisher, which the agent has already figured out, get as much money as she can from that publisher, and make a deal, rather than have the amount of money determine the sale. That's what the best agents do.