What I've learned being a writer is to just basically not buckle - not be belligerent, not be angry, not throw fits. Though there are times where you have to stand up and yell. If I've got to throw a chair, I'll throw a chair. There was a meekness about me when I started, and I think the meekness has sort of evaporated. I hope that it's left behind a more passionate person, not a meaner person. So I guess that's what I've learned.
Shane BlackIt sometimes is better to write in a more directed, focused way when the pages are aimed at something already, a mission statement or a basic spine that represents the theme or the concept that you've agreed on, and writing partners are great for that because you can sit there until you get it.
Shane BlackPeople would say, "Well yeah, if I wrote action films, if I wrote the trash that you write, I could make millions too. But I want to write my real movie about these Guatemalan immigrants, and how they hid under a truck for 300 miles." And that's fine. I'd love to make that film too, but to dismiss everything I did just because it's action seems wrong.
Shane BlackIt was like a frat house for film geeks, the Pad O' Guys. That's what being at UCLA afforded me. So when one of us had some success - in this case, my pal Fred Dekker - he would reach down the ladder and help me up a rung, give my work to his agent to pass around to see if anyone liked it.
Shane Black