"Ladyhawke goes back to when I was living in Paris for a couple of years and making a living translating. I read a lot of medieval literature and was very struck by poet Francois Villon's story of how he had been mistreated by a bishop. That started becoming the story of a little theif who had to go on a quest to redeem himself but was afraid to go on it alone. He needed someone's help, and there would be a price to pay for this. In my mind's eye, I saw a knight with a hawk on his arm, but I didn't know what the knight wanted or why the hawk was there. I first had this idea in 1970, but didn't actually write the screenplay until 1976, and the movie wasn't made until 1983. I wrote Ladyhawke on speculation, without being paid for it. I didn't have an agent, and couldn't get the studios to pay attention to it. When agents did read it, I couldn't find anybody at first who wanted to represent me or the screenplay. When I did finally find an agent, he didn't like Ladyhawke at all and wanted to send it to the Japanese because they did Godzilla movies."