The first thing to look out for after your first big success are drugs and screenplays.

You can't take a character anywhere they don't expect the character to go. But within those confines is where creativity lies

I can never read this book, just like I can never see a movie that I wrote a screenplay for. I can read it and see it physically, but I can't accurately judge it. I'm too close to it. If I read it ten times I'll have ten different reactions.

Writers spend three years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet. It's enough to make you lose your mind day by day

The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.

The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance.

You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying in the road.