John Hurt Quotes

I'm a big believer that the script is your bible.

A lot of times, the script is the thing they care about least.

Every film starts with the script.

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.

I've made seventeen or eighteen films now, only two of which have been original screenplays, all the others have been based on short stories or novels, and I find the long short story ideal for adaptation.

I think part of the problem sometimes is that there's so much happening in my books, to whittle it down into a single script is hard.

In general, my own experience of writing an adaptation of 'Evening' gave me a chance to get into different parts of the book.

All of my scripts are based on other people's novels. Generally, I consider myself as one who writes for theatre. I do not see film work as a continuation of writing for theatre. It is more of an interruption of the writing process.

It's not about Hollywood, it's always about a good script for me.

You just have to go with a good story and a script that you like and people that you like to work with.

At the end of the day you do have to write a short novel beforehand, called a script, before you can make a movie.

When you have great scripts, everything is very easy and fun.

It makes a world of difference when you start with an amazing script.

Most films are rooted in a book or a comic strip, but I don't go out there saying I want to do adaptations.

I can't do a film if I don't start with the writing.

I kept starting 'Anansi Boys' as a movie and stopping, and eventually wrote the novel and was happy.

You know, I feel like my job is to write a book. Then filmmakers come and they make a movie. And they're two really different art forms.

When I do a novel, I don't really use the script, I use the book; when I did Apocalypse Now, I used Heart of Darkness. Novels usually have so much rich material.

For me the writing, when I'm going to direct it myself, is really just the first draft, and I don't change it very much; I only change it on average about two lines per movie.

If it were all in the script, why make the film?

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

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.

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.

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

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.