When talented people write badly, it's generally for one of two reasons: Either they're blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove of they're driven by an emotion they must express. When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: They're moved by a desire to touch the audience.

There is no screenplay-writing recipe that guarantees your cake will rise.

Oh, by the way, I tend to use a lot of profanities. I do that for a reason: I like it.

Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.

We rarely know where we are going; writing is a discovery.

A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.