There's one thing that keeps surprising you about stormy old friends after they die - their silence.

There's one thing that keeps surprising you about stormy old friends after they die - their silence.

The honors Hollywood has for the writer are as dubious as tissue-paper cuff links.

Out of the thousand writers huffing and puffing through movieland there are scarcely fifty men and women of wit or talent. The rest of the fraternity is deadwood. Yet, in a curious way, there is not much difference between the product of a good writer and a bad one. They both have to toe the same mark.

Of the things men give each other the greatest is loyalty.

In the court of the movie Owner, none criticized, none doubted. And none dared speak of art. In the Owner's mind art was a synonym for bankruptcy. The movie Owners are the only troupe in the history of entertainment that has never been seduced by the adventure of the entertainment world.

The rule in the art world is: you cater to the masses or you kowtow to the elite; you can't have both.