Screenwriters From The United States

"I find it interesting that most of the was written by officers. The same is not true in France and Germany. I can’t imagine that British privates wrote less — I wonder if they were simply published less? The best piece of writing I read from the perspective of a British private was ’ ', but it is abstract and more beautiful than useful, from a research perspective."

"Years ago, during her first visit, Nola came here to do good, to set things right. But like any decision you look back on through the lens of time, what you marvel at most is how naïve you were."

"302 phone number. Delaware. Truthfully, I didn’t think they allowed anyone to live in Delaware anymore."

"As Huck’s about to learn, the worst prisons are the ones we create for ourselves."

"In every life, whatever you do, you either destroy or create."

"“You’re telling me you can hack into an FBI agent’s phone?” “Only when they’re dumb enough to use their personal one instead of a secure line. Swear to Steve Jobs, whoever invented working from home should get a big wet kiss on the mouth.”"

"He felt…good, which should’ve been a sign. If life taught Zig anything, it’s that the universe saves its best punches for when you least expect it."

"I hate watching cable news; it makes you dumber."

"I know why you’re here, Mr. Zigarowski. Your commitment to repetition makes it nauseatingly obvious."

"Even when you’re ready for it, nothing sneaks up on you like grief."

"“I love that you’re one of the kindest people on the planet, Ziggy, but I’ve seen teenagers in horror movies who’re less predictable…car washes that were less predictable…” “I get the point, Waggs.” “Ferris wheels that were less predictable!”"

"Years ago, his stepdad had told him that anyone who drives a BMW has a small penis."

"“How old are you, Mr. Zigarowski? Late forties?” “Fifty-two.” “Mhmm. You got lucky with that head of hair. Lady Time picks her lovers with care.”"

"There are only four different magic tricks: You make something appear. You make something disappear. You make two things change place. Or you change one thing into something else. Everything in magic is a variation on those four."

"You say you’re a mortician? You should know better than anyone. Just because you’re not dead doesn’t mean you’re alive."

"Sure enough, as Colonel Hsu stepped into his office, she gave him a big thumbs-up with a double pump. She was a politician. If she was leading with charm, bad news was coming."

"She thought about praying, but learned long ago there’d be no answer."

"Some misinformation is funny and really harmless. The blabber merchants have always trumpeted show-biz salaries as feverishly as if the security of the commonwealth depended on the revelations. They have never given the public the right information. I, for example, was widely reported to be making twenty-five million when in my best year I was making five. (There is a question, which I have considered elsewhere, whether the press ever gives us reliable information on anything.)"

"What about the press generally? Standard and tabloid, vulgar and obscene, the papers run rumors daily about people in show business, tales of wicked ways and witless affairs, inanity and misbehavior. Reporters develop these stories from tips and yarns they pick up, or buy, in hallways, parking lots, costume and makeup rooms, bars and toilets. They also reprint "releases" from press agents, although release stuff is always laudatory, tepid and bland. Army Archerd at Variety is the only columnist I know who checks his tips and rumors by making personal phone calls. He is a respectable reporter and commentator, and his specialty is straight news from authentic sources. In the main, show-biz buzz-artists, discovering that celebrities are dull, not vivacious and absorbing, do not hesitate to rush misinformation into print, usually adding a soupcon of scandal. Some celebs, being witless, are not disturbed; they are getting the publicity they crave, and if it causes the world to marvel at them, their hearts are glad. Not all celebrities are dunces. Many get upset when misrepresented, misinterpreted and misquoted, but their anger gets them nowhere. The eminent hournalists who wronged them assume a posture of plumb disbelief. The ungrateful staggering wounded are actually complaining about valuable publicity!"

"Have I changed with the passing years? No. I do talk less because the sound of my voice saying over and over the things I said years ago embarrasses and depresses me. Why do I say the same things over and over? Because I have never changed my opinions about anything."

"Treason is an easy word to speak. A traitor is one who fights and loses. Washington was a traitor to George III. Treason won, and Washington is immortal. Treason is a word that victors hurl at those who fail."

"Wealth and all its good things becomes with us at last habit. And habit is life."

"Born on a mountain top in Tennessee, Greenest state in the Land of the Free, Raised in the woods so's he knew ev'ry tree, Kilt him a b'ar when he was only three— Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier."

"When men in Congress come to blows at something someone said, I always notice that it shows their blood is quick and red; But if two women disagree, with very little noise, It proves, and this seems strange to me, that women have no poise."

"There, little girl, don't read, You're fond of your books, I know, But Brother might mope If he had no hope Of getting ahead of you. It's dull for a boy who cannot lead. There, little girl, don't read."

"Mother, what is a Feminist?" "A Feminist, my daughter, Is any woman now who cares To think about her own affairs As men don't think she oughter."

"It's treating a woman politely As long as she isn't a fright: It's guarding the girls who act rightly, If you can be judge of what's right; It's being—not just, but so pleasant; It's tipping while wages are low; It's making a beautiful present, And failing to pay what you owe."

"Don't ever dare to take your college as a matter of course,— because like freedom and democracy, many people you'll never know anything about have broken their hearts to get it for you."

"People love to talk but hate to listen....Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous, human interest in what’s being told us....You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer."

"We are not really senseless, and we are not angels, too, But very human beings, human just as much as you. It's hard upon occasions to be forceful and sublime When you're treated as incompetents three-quarters of the time."

"If it’s very painful for you to criticize your friends—you're safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it—that’s the time to hold your tongue."

"People who deal in truth themselves recognize it when they hear it, just as people who deal in diamonds recognize a real stone when they see it."

"I am American bred, I have seen much to hate here—much to forgive, But in a world where England is finished and dead, I do not wish to live."

"I think it's the sacrifice. The Superman we have now, this risen Superman, in a lot of ways his place on Earth, in my way of thinking, has been solidified. He is all things now. He is not only the sacrifice, but he is the risen. He's a man, but he's also like a god. You know what I mean? He has completed the apprenticeship in humanity, and now has his Master's Degree. To me that's what it is about. I think in the end when you see him, the way I would think about it--and look, frankly there's not enough movie, I know that sounds crazy in context [laughs], to really explore it. But that was always the plan going forward. In the end if there was two more movies, the last movie really is a Superman movie in a lot of ways."

"Yeah. Well, there is something about Batman – even for me growing up… I’ve always felt like he’s really troubled, you know? He’s working out a pretty massive trauma that happened to him, and I think that by keeping that alive in the story – through a nightmare or imagery like that, you feel like it’s still boiling. To me, it keeps him on point as a character. Like, if you let that fade too far into the background, you start to go, “No wait – why is he doing this again? What’s he upset about? Like, there’s police. He knows that, right?” [Laughs] You know, we have a little thing called the justice system, and it works okay."

"In all my locked-up songs No one but you belongs."

"And they shall know that in the ordering Of every world to come the law shall read That he who dares be lawless wears the wing Of bird and prophet and his light shall lead On through the darkness to eventual light, To undiscovered wealth, to newer need. ..."

"So much do I love wandering, So much I love the sea and sky, That it will be a piteous thing In one small grave to lie!"

"Mine was a love so exquisite that I Rather than watch it wither chose to die: So dress my grave, O friend, with no poor flower Which in your quiet garden blooms an hour!"

"Forgetting is the cost Of living cheerfully."

"No one can ever help loving anyone."

"The nostalgia— not of memories But of what has never been!"

"And have we lost the right To look on a blooming bough Without remembering how Once with high promising We were a part of spring— We who are now the dead Leaves of other years strewn where flowers spread?"

"Work alone qualifies us for life, Sentoni. It is much more exquisite to be blown from the tree as a flower than to be shaken down as a shriveled and bitter fruit."

"... there's a great strangeness about love. ... Yes, I'm very sure that love is the strangest thing in the world—much stranger than death—or—or just life."

"It's all right to tell a wife the brutal truth, but you've got to go sort of easy with your lady-love."

"And I wonder if peace is enough for any man. ..."

"The success haters. ... That's what I call them—the people who have never got what they want and turned sour on everybody who has. The world's full of them. ... As soon as you've made good they begin to watch for you to fail. ..."

"TILLERTON: "To him that hath it shall be given—" She hath ... that's all. That's greatness. PRESCOTT: One sort of greatness, maybe. TILLERTON: Even the great can have only their own sort of greatness. PRESCOTT: And it's often only that they're great sponges. TILLERTON: Often, yes, or great roses for whose blooming the trees have been pruned and stripped. But they make the beauty of the world and that's enough."

"Indifferent to all the fun of chance I watched black spiders of inertia spin The far-flung web which I was strangling in."