Screenwriting (Story Creation) Quotes

Can't remember where they're all from, but here's some thoughts to consider as you boil your stories:

The artist must be a prophet, not in the sense that he foretells things to come, but that he tells the audience, at the risk of their displeasure, the secrets of their own heart.  
Saul Bellow

I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images.  
Ingmar Bergman

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
Hitchcock

There are just two stories: going on a journey and a stranger comes to town.  
John Gardner 

A film is-or should be-more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. the theme, what's behind the emotion the meaning, all that comes later.  
Kubrick

As soon as you have chosen a subject for a film, you have already made a success or failure.
Billy Wilder 

Don't be seduced into thinking that which does not make a profit is without value.
Arthur Miller

It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.
Robert Benchley

 Writers are only rarely likable.
Joan Didion

The dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere.
S. J. Perelman

First cut out all the wisdom: then cut out all the adjectives.
Paddy Chayefskey.

Never launch a major rewrite unless you've heard the same criticism from at least 4 people.

The more successful the villain: the more successful the picture.
Hitchcock

You miss 100% of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzy