Screenplay Formatting Quotes

What has always been at the heart of film making was the value of a script. It was really the writer who could make or break a film. But as we all know, the writer has always been at the bottom of the creative heap.

I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay.

You get spoiled as a novelist because you get to be the director and the editor, and you play all the parts, but as a screenwriter, you are a bit down the ladder.

Scripts are what matter... if you get those foundations wrong, then you absolutely don’t stand a shot.

I love writing for the screen.

My entry into screenwriting was not smooth.

The simple idiot's advice I give to screenwriters who say they want to sell a screenplay is, 'Write good.'

I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!

I've written pilots. I wrote a movie.

I love film and have taken a stab at a screenplay. I love writing dialogue and found it highly enjoyable.

I'm not writing novels, the screenplays are my novels, so I'm gonna write it the best that I can. If the movie never gets made, it'd almost be okay because I did it. It's there on the page.

Screenplays are the hardest thing to try to get right. They look so simple when they work, but they really destroy your brain cells trying to get them there.

People, certainly in the U.K., look down on screenwriting as an art form, but I love the discipline of it. Next to the bagginess of novel writing, it almost feels like a martial art.

[Screenwriting] is no more complicated than old French torture chambers, I think. It's about as simple as that.

I tried my hand at writing, I tried to write out a little script - and it's not too bad. Mostly, though, it let me understand how incredibly difficult that job is. I can't even imagine doing it on a weekly basis for a series in any way. That's tough. I think I'll try to leave that to smarter people than me.

I do not think I will ever write screenplays based on my books. I would not know what to cut out and what portions to keep. I like all the characters I have created. I cannot imagine chopping them off.

I definitely have the screenwriting itch.

I think, in a weird way, the reason I was drawn to screenwriting and the reason I really love doing it is because I love writing dialogue.

Being a professional screenwriter is perhaps the hardest occupation. Because nothing is ever yours and, by the nature of the medium, you are never ultimately responsible for your work. It can be interesting - if you have another outlet.

I see screenwriting as a bit like a math equation which I have to solve.

I have no problems or issues with screenwriting in general.

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

If you want to write for films or TV, you must go to Hollywood.

I consider myself a good screenwriter.

I want to get off with the screenwriting.