I have never been an ambitious person, and my participation in this industry is a fluke, but only male writers can afford to be coy and self-deprecating.

Diablo Cody

Categorized in : Self Ambitious Flukes

He is the cheese to my macaroni. by Diablo Cody

He is the cheese to my macaroni.

macaroni sweet-love cheese

I feel like I'm part of a generation of people who are stuck in the past and are really self-absorbed. I mean, we're actually taking pictures of ourselves and posting them on Facebook, and keeping in touch with people that should have been out of our lives 15 years ago.

For me, stripping was an unusual kind of escape. I had nothing to escape but privilege, but I claimed asylum anyway. At twenty-four, it was my last chance to reject something and become nothing. I wanted to terrify myself. Mission accomplished.

four lasts asylums

There's this double standard that exists and it really frustrates me. If a woman chooses to work, people say, "Oh it's so sad that you're not at home with your children." But no one ever says that to a man because it's assumed that the man is going to be the provider.

home men children

I don't think I ever got the hang of the writers' room. I love collaborating with people, but I really do my best work alone, and I think I would want to - if I did something again, I think I'd want to take total ownership the way Aaron Sorkin or David Kelley does.

doe people thinking

I think sometimes people really require the satisfaction of closu... by Diablo Cody

I think sometimes people really require the satisfaction of closure.

satisfaction people thinking

I write small and weird. Romcoms are not in my skill set. by Diablo Cody

I write small and weird. Romcoms are not in my skill set.

To aspiring writers, I would tell them that we live in a wonderful time where you're able to make your work visible, easily. If you think about it, even ten years ago or twenty years ago, there was a middle man, there was a publisher, there were studios, there was this world of rejection letters. Now, we're in a place where we have the technology and the ability to go shoot our own movies or to put stuff on YouTube or a blog, if you're a writer, or self-publish.

technology men thinking

I had written the script for Juno and apparently Steven Spielberg had read it. I can't just call him Steven, that's weird... Mr. Spielberg had read it and he liked it. He asked me if I would write this television show for him and I said, 'Yeah!'

scripts writing television

I think it's great when writers get recognition; it doesn't happen very often. I just don't want that writer to be me. Let it be Aaron Sorkin or, you know, somebody good.

recognition want thinking

There's probably no experience more alienating than fame, other than a terminal illness, where you actually find yourself in a situation that nobody around you can relate to.

finding-yourself illness fame

I have a lot of screenwriter friends and many of them have had an experience where they aren't even welcome on set during production.

screenwriters welcome productions

I'm glad that as a 33-year-old working mother, I can still choose to wear a Hello Kitty T-shirt or stay up late scrolling through the Twitter feed of my junior-high crush.

crush mother years

I've been meaning to write about the Rolling Stones, but I am the furthest thing from a hipster rock journalist.

hipster rocks writing

Stripping toughened my hide, but exposing myself as a writer has... by Diablo Cody

Stripping toughened my hide, but exposing myself as a writer has been a lot more brutal.

stripping brutal has-beens

I've never even seen a great set fight or a great set meltdown. I seem to always be on these incredibly relaxed sets.

relaxed meltdowns fighting

I myself identify as a recovering Blockhead. You'd be surprised how many twenty- and thirty-something hipster chicks have the NKOTB skeleton in their closet, albeit artfully concealed by stacks of Ksubi skinny jeans and ironic Judas Priest T-shirts.

hipster skeletons jeans

Ah, reality TV: where opportunists delight in exposing opportunism! It's kind of like the indie music scene.

delight tvs reality

Love is mysterious and rad, like Steve Perry from Journey by Diablo Cody

Love is mysterious and rad, like Steve Perry from Journey

rad journey love-is

I keep joking that I'm in Jason Reitman Film School, because I keep asking him questions every single day about directing and I have a list of things that he's told me to do and not do and I definitely couldn't learn from a better person.

jason asking school