American Quotes

I think film writing, you're thinking in pictures, and stage writing, you're thinking in dialogue. In film writing, it's also, you only get so many words, so everything has to earn its place in a really economical way. I think for stage writing, you have more leeway.

I think action should be revealed through character, so if you have a plot problem, it's probably a character problem.

I really love people. I love to meet people. I'm curious about people.

I read a lot of plays as a kid, but I didn't see that many plays, so I feel better-versed in film history and film structure. I just think it's easier to think in pictures.

I never wanted to be a playwright.

I love to walk around New York. Honestly, that's like the best thing, to walk over to Park Slope and go visit my friend Betty and take her dog out in the park or go walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I really dig being outside and getting to see everybody in the street.

I love bad movies, whereas going to the theater for me is a painful experience. I think it's really hard to sit and watch actors do something live and have it not go well.

I have mad luck. I'm super-good at games like backgammon or anything that requires rolling dice.

I hate going to bed. I read scripts, clean, listen to the radio - I've fallen asleep to 'This American Life' more times than I can count!

I grew up in L.A., and I don't think I've seen L.A. onscreen in a way that felt real to me. There are definitely movies, but they are few and far between.

I find playwriting to be incredibly difficult compared to screenwriting. Part of it is that I grew up watching movies and not watching plays.

I find playwriting really painful. I love it, or I wouldn't do it, but I don't love the theater as much as I love movies.

I don't like pretentious films or pretentious people.

I don't have a lot of patience for boring arthouse movies.

I always wrote. My parents are writers. It just seemed like something people did.

But my family's really close and I was interested in what Mommy and Daddy did for a living. So when Mommy and Daddy had a script that wasn't totally age inappropriate, they would let me read it. And we would talk about it.

Anytime that I've felt uninspired, I don't force myself to sit down and write. I only do it when I feel the impulse.

And when I get bored, it's like the worst parts of me come out. I really veer to self-destructive tendencies quickly.

And then the really awful thing is that at the end of the day after crying and experiencing things, then you look at what you've written and you're like, 'Hmm, there's half a page that's good here.' Then you throw out everything else.

And I think the female creative urge is intrinsically biologically linked to our ability to give birth to a child, even if we've never... I've never given birth, but I feel like it's part of our psychology.

I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.

I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.

I gave my life to the Group Theatre, because in it I'm building something for myself. What I build, I am.

I don't remember anything anybody said in any Jack Ford picture. Nothing happens except action.

I didn't have that much confidence. Maybe it looks that way. I'm glad it does.

Hey, you must be doin' good, 'cause I never hear from you.

For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.

Every picture that is successful has one little miracle in it.

Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?

A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.