John McTiernan Quotes

Most of the best writing, the most creative writing, the most interesting, the most out-of-the-box kind of stuff, is being done on cable, you know, and on the computer. I mean, whatever it is, Amazon or Netflix or something. Because they're just willing to take chances, you know, and there's a market for it.

I'm not famous for my back story investigations; I'm lucky that I work with good writers and it's usually in the script.

I've written plenty of scripts that sucked.

Ilike ideas writers have that I might not have written. Writers are there for a reason... to write for me.

I don't have a stack of scripts.

I did no research on 'The Best Man.' That was something that came out from my own head.

I get so excited about reading a new script.

For me, a play is a form of writing which isn't complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it's still a form of writing. And so most of my time is spent thinking about how to write a sentence.

I find that screenwriting is at best kind of a hackwork in some ways.

'What It Is' was based on this class I've been teaching for 10 years - I wanted to write a book about writing that didn't mention stuff like story structure, protagonists, and all those things that we know about only because they already exist in stories.

It all starts with the script: it's not worth taking myself away from my family if I don't have something I'm really passionate about.

Usually when I write a script, I have in mind some real people that I'm writing about, who don't always act in the film afterward.

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

Nothing beats a good part with good writers that you get to come back to year after year.

I can't remember what my first script was.

It took us nine months to write 'The East'; we didn't start writing it on the computer until seven and a half months into it.

When I first heard the 'Urumi' script, I was surprised, shocked, and excited. It was a strong script with a reference to the past. It had fact mixed with fiction. To incorporate facts into a film and introduce fictional characters was interesting. I loved the script.

I want to write from my own experience.

When we first started to write our first movie, 'You Are Going To Prison,' we wanted it to be crazy and unique, brand new, our voice, not like anything that'd ever been before. It took us about a year to write our first script.

Initially, I wanted to be a writer for other people. 'Hereditary,' I was writing it from a woman's perspective.

To sit down at a computer every day and write a script is commendable. I don't have the patience for it, but I have some fantastic ideas.

It might be more difficult because you haven't got a book or a prop, but for the most part I like to write unpaid... initially and my own stories.

I love the idea of directing, I'm not confident enough, but I'm more confident in, well, I'd love to write. I've sort of written my whole life and I think I have a knack for it, so I'd like to write something and see what people think and that would be my first step to directing.

I don't know if there's a problem with original ideas... I think a healthy film industry should have a good supply of good, original writing.

I love the writing process. It's something that I'm interested in personally and something I always do on every movie.