Writing scripts is a laborious job that can be a real pain.

The other thing being at UCLA was just being in California and around the movie business. Which I honestly believe, and I've told this to screenwriters, you have to do. You have to be there in order to write or direct movies.

Writing scripts is a laborious job that can be a real pain.

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.

You can win as long as you chose your battles. You can win more arguments then you might think as a writer, even though you legally have no recourse, and your script can get muddied and altered in any way possible. You can use reason, logic, and passion to argue persuasively for a case in your favor. So what I've learned is to just basically not buckle - not be belligerent, not be angry, not throw fits, but just not buckle.

I think a lot of people - by the time I came back with a script I liked, which took me many years, they'd forgotten who I was. Doors all the time are slamming, you meet friends that you've had for years, you'd go to the studio, and they'd say things to indicate clearly that they hadn't read it, or that they'd had their assistant sort of skim it. They wouldn't buy it. They wouldn't make it.

I've turned down lots and lots of work. Things that could have made me some money.