It seems to me that the civilized human being is a skeptic someone who believes nothing at face value.

Good story' means something worth telling that the world wants to hear. Finding this is your lonely task...But the love of a good story, of terrific characters and a world driven by your passion, courage, and creative gifts is still not enough. Your goal must be a good story well told.

God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.

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

Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking.

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.

Deus ex machina not only erases all meaning and emotion, it's an insult to the audience. Each of us knows we must choose and act, for better or worse, to determine the meaning of our lives...Deus ex machina is an insult because it is a lie.