Whatever you cut when there's no deadline isn't really a cut. You're just pushing colors around. William Monahan More Quotes by William Monahan More Quotes From William Monahan Refreshing honesty has been getting me in trouble since I was five, but it's probably had some positive effects - like not being a liar. William Monahan honestytroubleliars I cut London Boulevard pretty aggressively, but I liked the transitions and the elliptical feel that I got. It's not an exceptionally easy film to follow. You have to know that the paparazzo looks like Mark David Chapman. He hasn't got an expositional sign on him. William Monahan transitioncuttinglooks I started out as a writer with an hour removed from Kingdom of Heaven. You have to make one print for the entire world, and that's something that influences the theatrical cuts of pictures to an enormous degree. It's a reality. You can't have one cut for the Sunni, and one for the Shia, and one each for Tories, Whigs, vegetarians, one cut for the Cineplex, and one for literary intellectuals. William Monahan cuttingheavenreality You can believe in originals only if you just don't know their context within literature. Certainly I believe in originality, but it lies with the teller, not the tale. William Monahan literaturebelievelying I think that gambling is a synthetic experience and that if you have any balls you gamble with your life. I have. So can everybody else. William Monahan gamblingballsthinking Redrafts can be very lucrative for me, but you must understand that if films go through many drafts or writers it's because someone doesn't want to do the picture and never will. William Monahan filmifswant If TV seems improved, I think it's been enhanced by violence and sex permissible on cable, as well as better cinematography, but in the end it's really only soap operas like your grandmother's afternoon "stories" and that's all it wants to be or has to be. William Monahan grandmothersexthinking If you need someone to come out of the sewer with a wire you don't hire someone who needs laborious collective instruction. You let someone do his job, whether he's a focus puller or a surgeon. William Monahan wirefocusjobs Most films go out like skydivers who have had their chutes packed by a committee of blind schizophrenics. William Monahan committeesfilmblind Getting the correct writer is simply like casting. You wouldn't hire an actor in order to tell him how to work. He knows how to work, which is why you hired him. William Monahan castingactorsorder A writer is a performer as well. A writer isn't the literary department. That gets tried on but nothing's a script unless a good writer goes away and does his thing alone. William Monahan wellsscriptsdoe Wisdom is not having illusions, especially anything in your own mind that elevates you above others. William Monahan illusionmind It's interesting to think that my children know more about the process than many mature critics. William Monahan childreninterestingthinking In truth, the cinema as a delivery system obviously has its days numbered. And that's not a bad thing. When you can buy any book in the world on your iPad, or off Amazon, you don't go the public library. The public library becomes about homeless gentlemen sleeping in chairs. William Monahan ipadssleepbook I didn't have anything to do with selecting IFC. I don't have anything to do with distribution, or business, or marketing, but think it's a good choice by Graham, and perfect for London Boulevard. It gets the picture straight into a dialog with the public, and it doesn't set the sights too high. They're very hip at IFC, and they get the film. The cineplex hasn't done film any favors as an art form. William Monahan sightartthinking You know a shooter when you see it. At least the creative people do. If a picture isn't obvious in the first draft you're kind of screwed. William Monahan creativepeoplefirsts Some reviewer might be out there saying, obviously Edge of Darkness didn't come off because of the script, blah blah blah, but everybody has read the script, except the journalist attacking it. William Monahan scriptsdarknessmight In all honesty a gangster picture was the easiest kind of film for me to get made. William Monahan filmhonestykind If you write a screenplay that gets circulated, you have a bigger readership than any literary novelist. And it's an educated audience as well. William Monahan novelistsbiggerwriting It wasn't just British gangster films that really did for me as a kid, personally, it was British films in general. William Monahan britishfilmkids
