Robert Ben Garant Quotes

I would rather read a poorly structured story that has fresh ideas than a tightly structured one with cliches.

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

I take time to write my script, if I have more scripts, I will make more movies.

I don't read books on how to write screenplays just because I'm stubborn. So it's all sort of made up.

Sometimes I find it tiresome to write actions and describe the scene in a very intricate way so that every crew member understands where we are going - that I can find a little bit long and tiresome. But dialogue is just all my life. There's no way I could ever be challenged, not challenged, but I'm always so happy to write dialogue.

Do you know how long it took me to write 'For a Few Dollars More'? Nine days.

I have seen too many screenwriters of promise become formula addicts and slaves to stop watch structure. Spend that time watching movies, reading screenplays, reading plays, and most importantly - write from your gut.

The truth is that every writer, whether it's fiction or nonfiction, is trying to write something truly original and that's what I think I'm doing.

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.

I remember that when I got to NYU, everyone was writing scripts. But I was 18 at the time, and when you write a script, so much of it is about what you pull from life, and this sounds sort of cheesy, but I felt like I didn't have enough life experience at that point to write a movie.

There's nothing more important in making movies than the screenplay.

I think when I start out writing, I always try to write the version of the movie that I want to go see. I don't mean it in a way that ignores the audience, but I really set out to make a movie that I want to see and that, hopefully, other people will want to go see it. So whatever's amusing to me, I guess, I throw it all in there.

By the time I wrote 'Any Given Sunday' or 'Bats,' I sort of knew what my job was in terms of what a writer of dialogue does.

I want to write a film. I need to think of the right idea and focus on that; I love writing.

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

I originally went to school to be a filmmaker. And so it's a big part of how I think and how I write. And it inspires me a lot.

I finished 'Hell or High Water' and started writing 'Wind River' literally the next day.

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.

You can't just express yourself and it becomes a movie. You have to get beyond that.

The intensity of the story breaking on 'Vampire' has never been easy. Every week, you're starting with a blank board and trying to make a new movie. There's no formula; there's no franchise to hang your hat on.

Writing in another person's voice is a skill you have to develop when you're working on someone else's show. But if you can maintain your perspective, that's what will make you stand out.

An idea you have might not be original. But by creating a novel out of that idea you can make it original.

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

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

I don't think screenplay writing is the same as writing - I mean, I think it's blueprinting.