Leigh Brackett Quotes

The few times I've tried to write original screenplays, it's a difficult process because I just don't feel like I know the characters the way I know them after the year or two it takes to write a novel.

When you are working on a script, the story itself is not difficult. You say this would happen and then this, resulting perhaps in this. And the dialogue you make as true as you can.

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

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

The elegance of a really good screenplay, I admire it. I can't do it.

Writing a screenplay, for me, is like juggling. It's like, how many balls can you get in the air at once? All those ideas have to float out there to a certain point, and then they'll crystallize into a pattern.

All the writing elements are the same. You need to tell a good story... You've got good characters... People think there's some dramatic difference between writing 'Little Bear' and the 'Hunger Games,' and as a writer, for me, there isn't.

Good scripts and interesting stories are hard enough to find.

I like the story writing process. I usually use someone who has been trained for structure to take the story that I actually want, place those elements in the right places.

A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.

My preference is for good writing. It doesn't matter if it's for film or TV. Whatever. It starts with the writing. Even though I've had problems with writers, it doesn't matter how great of an actor you are. If the writing is bad, you're going to struggle.

Much of the time in the writer's room is spent working on story, and I was always challenging myself to make it more interesting, tighter and more surprising: to come at it sideways in a way that the audience wasn't expecting.

If one day a TV series comes into my head, and that is what I want to write, I'll write it. It just depends what story is in my brain at the time.

Writing a screenplay is like writing a big puzzle, and so the hardest part, I think, is getting the story.

I wouldn't know a good script if it bit me in the face.

Everyone has a story to tell. All you have to do is write it. But it's not that easy.

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

We're constantly trying to find the best way to tell the stories that we want.

Writing a script consumes so much of time.

Plays are the marathon of scriptwriting. You fix on a point somewhere in the middle distance, and you start running, and you don't stop until you get to the end. The theory is that you have something you cannot not say: this is the engine that propels you through to the last page.

This is absolutely the true answer, no word of a lie, 100% guaranteed: Q: What's the best way to turn my idea into a story? A: Whatever works for you.

I would say, A, you can't really teach anyone how to write good characters, because it's something you have to teach yourself or already have innately in you as a storyteller, and, B, coming up with a good screenplay is a very, very small fraction of what it takes to be a good screenwriter.

It is very enjoyable, writing a story. You get this idea. It takes hold of you. And then you spend day and night thinking about how to do it. And then you do it. And much later, you think, 'Oh, yes. That's an interesting question.'

I think the most important thing when you're telling a story is to just tell the story as best as you possibly can.

I don't stare at a sheet of paper and try to think of a good word to use. I try to see where the story should go.