I always write as I like to write, and I've been thinking about it because I honestly didn't realize how different my stuff is, until I started looking at other people's scripts as a producer. William Monahan More Quotes by William Monahan More Quotes From William Monahan For me, film has been good because I'm able to work at top crack, working at something I love to do, in the only literary form in which you can still make money. There are no famous novelists, not as novelists used to be famous. William Monahan cracks novelists able I've got things I have to do in fiction to sort of register my existence, before I kick the bucket, but it will never be my living and I know it. Plus it never moved fast enough for me and lacked cut and thrust. I need to be in the real show. William Monahan buckets cutting real That's absolutely true, but one problem with the digital revolution, which may tie into what I said earlier, is that there can be a collapse of quality. You may not have liked the decisions made by publishers in the past, you may not have liked the decisions made by magazine editors or newspaper editors in the past. At least there was some quality control William Monahan digital-revolution editors past But the web is to some degree a broth of psychopaths seeing what they can get away with in circumstances of anonymity. Look, we live in a world where one is unsafe in various ways because of the Internet. Anything can be said. Someone can look at your house from space. William Monahan degrees space house It's been very much in the blood since I started imagining films or shooting with 8mm when I was a kid. I made some films and thought about films, but then I went into writing. Becket is something that's definitely on the cards. We have to see where that fits in the schedule, because it's a big picture and I have a lot of writing obligations at the moment. I'm wary of anything with a budget over a certain amount. William Monahan writing kids blood I have no reason as a director to have films go up in versions that I don't like. My only experience of film after ten years is honestly that if a picture doesn't get second-guessed you're looking at four Oscars, and if a picture does get second-guessed, you're not. I've got an advanced degree in that lesson. William Monahan degrees directors years Yeah, well I can't see a situation where I wouldn't at least re-write as a director something I was going to direct. At the moment, I wouldn't direct anything that I hadn't written. I can now say, as everybody else says, that it all depends on the script. William Monahan scripts writing directors London exists normally in a state of bleach bypass. There's the artistic context of "Blow Up" and "Performance" and all the Sixties and Seventies British films that I grew up on, because I did very much grow up on British films. William Monahan growing-up london blow London matters to me because it's the center of what I do for a living and has been since Tudor times. William Monahan tudors london matter I write drama in the English language. If I wasn't working in London I'd be doing something wrong. William Monahan london writing drama I need as much of the business of making a film to be in my own workspace. It really ought to be a bit more like doing a novel, alone, at first. I'm feeling my way. William Monahan feelings way needs As first time director, though, you're like a new officer coming up to be in charge of very serious veterans, and you're always going to have guys looking at each other for the first day until they realize you're not screwing around. William Monahan guy directors firsts When they see you get what you want and move on, quickly, you've done a contract with the crew from that point. In Britain if the sparks call you Guv on day two, you never need an award of any other kind. William Monahan awards two moving You just have to know what you want and what you're doing and it leads to a kind of general well-being, which I think you sensed when you were there. William Monahan kind want thinking I was always entirely about work, about getting where I am now. If I'm not working I'm thinking about it, though at some point I learned not to talk about it very much. William Monahan ifs thinking I love audiences, but they're not there to drive the bus. Whenever you ask opinions or anticipate opinions you can get pretty terrible art, or non-art. You need a single guiding intelligence, even in a collaborative form. William Monahan opinion art needs I'm not very precious at all, which I think people find surprising. William Monahan surprising people thinking You evolve in the ways in which you are precious. When you are the director, you are also continuing to write on the floor as you go along. William Monahan writing directors way Saying directors don't write because they don't type is very wrong, it's like saying Dylan doesn't write music because he doesn't write notation. William Monahan type writing directors If you decide to do Hamlet in a funny hat staged in a ruined factory, it doesn't make you Shakespeare. William Monahan ruined factories hats