The old days of screenwriting, and myths about screenwriting, are maybe over. It's a literary form, if you can wake up to it.
William MonahanOn historical you take the known facts, dramatize them, and then stitch them together by invention. It's a projective thing.
William MonahanThe thing about movies is if somebody has an idea that works, it's in, and I say that as a screenwriter as well as a director.
William MonahanI was particularly anxious that I shoot the tires out of the class system. All it is these days is a hobby of certain masochists, and certain sadists.
William MonahanI'm a guy whose first motion picture experience was seeing Ridley Scott glide past on a camera on a hundred and fifty million dollar film, and prep two movies, and there is no way to overstate that when you've worked with Ridley, it's like having been a quarterdeck lieutenant to Lord Nelson.
William Monahan