Film Script Quotes

#1. And so Graham and I finally got down to our first film script, and I can say with complete confidence that we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. Of course, we had no idea we had no idea what we were doing, and that meant our enthusiasm stayed intact.

John Cleese

#2. Anybody can write a film script 'cuz it has been reduced to a formula.

Dirk Benedict

#3. How I envy writers who can work on aeroplanes or in hotel rooms. On the run I can produce an article or a book review, or even a film script, but for fiction I must have my own desk, my own wall with my own postcards pinned to it, and my own window not to look out of.

John Banville

#4. Whether it's a lower or higher budget project, a TV show or a film, the words on the page are the same to me and I approach the work in the same way. My job is to lift the character from the page, whether it's a TV or film script.

Michael Eklund

#5. What's going to be hard for me is to try to divorce myself as much as possible from what I wrote. I'll have to approach it simply as raw material and try to craft a film script out of it.

Michael Chabon

#6. When I read a film script, I kind of see it in my head and I see the moments that shape what I understand the character to be. There's very little time for rehearsal.

Karen Allen

#7. A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.

David Mamet

#8. If you just read Joseph Campbell, who has written amazing books on mythology and religion, they all do come together at some point. There are some of the greatest stories that there have ever been in the Bible. All you have to do is read the book of Maccabi, it's like a film script.

Mel Gibson

#9. I've never seen or heard of a mob sitting down to read a film script.

Deepa Mehta

#10. I just think Australia tends to make very good movies, so if someone hands me an Australian or an American film script I would guess the Australian film would be more intriguing.

Barbara Hershey

#11. I didn't leave that crowd of ocelots to go back into it." [when asked to write the film script for The Osterman Weekend]

Robert Ludlum

#12. TV has gotten perhaps better than your average film script, but at the same time, it's fun to give it all you've got for a few months and produce a story.

Michiel Huisman

#13. I've had three novels published, and I was working a little bit in theater in Ireland. I wrote one film script just to see what it would turn out like.

Neil Jordan

#14. How stupid do you have to be to imagine that you can turn 'The Lord Of The Rings' into a film script?

John Rhys-Davies

#15. Collaborating on a film script involves two people sitting in a room separated by the silence of two minds working together.

Darlene Craviotto

#16. When I got the script for Thelma & Louise, when I met with the director, Ridley Scott, I said, "I don't want to do a revenge film. I'm not interested in doing that moment in the script after they shoot the truck, where it says they jump up and down and they're real happy about it".

Susan Sarandon

#17. When the script for 'The Wrestler' kept coming to me I said, This movie is so good if you put me in the film as a wrestler people are going to say, 'No credibility, Hulk Hogan isn't a good actor,' whatever Hollywood thinks of me.

Hulk Hogan

#18. A lot of the time the film chooses me. I'll be working and I'll get a call from my agent and I'll get the script and then tell him what I think.

Jodi Lyn O'Keefe

#19. I love TV, don't get me wrong. But with film, you're just banging out this one product and you're not waiting on another script. You have your script. It's great, in that way.

David Anders

#20. I think the script is the key. Regardless of how great everybody else is working on a film, if you're working on a script that you don't think is great, you're not gonna be able to make a great film. Whereas if the script is great, then you can.

Ewan McGregor

#21. With my first book, I was hired to write a draft of the script. I was so young and less confident. They put me through seven or eight drafts and it was just getting worse and worse, and then the film was never made.

Emma Donoghue

#22. It feels very, very good to make a film freely, to work without having to wait years for script approval, without looking over your shoulder.

Bahman Ghobadi

#23. I'm doing a Dylan Thomas film, Map of Love, with Mick Jagger producing again. It's a wonderful script.

Dougray Scott

#24. I regret not doing a film that I was offered with Clark Gable because the script was not good enough.

Leslie Caron

#25. Some people say that they read the first 20 pages, and then decide if they want to do the film or not. But, I have to read the entire thing 'cause anything can change in a script.

Liana Liberato

#26. I almost always do things that I like, in some form or fashion. Every once in awhile that means that I don't think the script is any good and I don't have any trust in the people, but the film is shooting in Sri Lanka, or somewhere like that, so I'm going.

Billy Campbell

#27. The script for this film was written 52 years ago by Edward R. Murrow, who taught us many valuable lessons about responsibility and always, always questioned authority, because without it authority often goes unchecked.

George Clooney

#28. Each film is different. Time Code was very quick - a matter of months. Miss Julie has been on my shelf as a script for some seven or eight years. But then the shooting process was very quick - 16 days.

Mike Figgis

#29. Sometimes you see things in a script, and it doesn't necessarily mean the director sees the same things. And if you think you're going to be making a different film, then that's not gonna work.

Michael Sheen

#30. Sometimes the best thing you could do is a real bad film ... you could improvise all over the place and probably only improve the script.

Bruce Glover

#31. Always care for the writing part first. Every good film project starts with good writing. If you have a good script, everything else follows. Writing is crucial.

Giovanna Cau

#32. You can start a documentary with just a camera, as opposed to a fiction film where you need actors, a crew, a script, a lot more start-up resources. It may be self-perpetuating.

Thom Powers

#33. A film is a living thing. The screenplay is a guideline. You really need to have a good, sound script to know that you have a dramatic structure that's going to work thematically, and to know how one scene will got through another, and to get a sense of character.

Jose Padilha

#34. Sometimes you do a film because the script is amazing, sometimes you do it because you get to work with amazing people, and sometimes you do a film because they pay you money.

Sean Patrick Flanery

#35. Now I'm doing a film festival for kids and writing a script about a kidnapped journalist in Afghanistan.

Olivia Wilde

#36. Yeah, when you're making a film, the book is a good tool, but once you have the script and you're making a movie, you have to let go of the book.

Jennifer Lawrence

#37. I think it's the same thing for a country. We are lucky then that we can get some financing from the government, because it means when I get the money, when I get the grant to do the film, of course it's based on the script, but I have total artistic control and I can do personal stuff.

Philippe Falardeau

#38. I really would have been stupid not to have done it. It was also a film that was actually happening, I mean, Miramax was doing it, and it had a kind of legitimacy to it. And once I read the script, I was there.

Adam Arkin

#39. I would love to write a script where the main character is a woman. I know I can direct a film where the main character is a woman. I cannot write that film.

Philippe Falardeau

#40. I would love to produce a film. I have written a script and am in the process of writing another, so maybe it will happen down the road. I would love to do a film in Africa.

Judi Shekoni

#41. The role and the script are not the only factor to chose or do a film, but the names associated with the project also matters.

Tena Desae

#42. I like to rehearse with the actors scenes that are not in the script and will not be in the film because what we're really doing is trying to establish their character, and good acting to me is about reacting.

Jim Jarmusch

#43. I'm not Akira Kurosawa. He used to write ... He used to write a completely new spec script over a couple of nights. I'm not like that. It takes me a long time to put a film together that I want to make.

Duncan Jones

#44. When you're playing a real person, there's a balance between playing the person in the script and playing the person as he was in life. You have to be respectful and true to who that person was, but at the same time tell the story in the film.

David Tennant

#45. There are three things that are important for a film. Number one is story, number two is story, number three is story. Good actors can save a bad script and make it bearable, but good actors can't make a bad script good - they can just make it bearable.

Mark Strickson

#46. In the film work, I love to work mainly from the script and from talking to the directors, so a lot of the music, big portions of the scores that I've made, have been composed before the movies were even shot.

Gustavo Santaolalla

#47. I think a badly crafted, great idea for a new film with a ton of spelling mistakes is just 100 times better than a well-crafted stale script.

Alexander Payne

#48. In my first film, we always tried to have a script and work in a normal way, but I was constantly changing things during shooting. Because I worked as a scriptwriter for 10 years, I understood that directors always wanted to change what was originally written, to improve on it.

Wong Kar-Wai

#49. Sometimes my interest in working on a film is not always dictated specifically by the character. Sometimes it's simply about wanting to be a part of a vision that I love, or a script that I love. I find exciting and gratifying.

Elijah Wood

#50. To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script.

Alfred Hitchcock

#51. Film and television are just different. Film is cool because it's a complete package. You know the beginning, middle, and end. You can plan it out more, which I like. But with television you get a new script every week, so it's constantly a mystery as to what you're going to be doing.

Austin Butler

#52. Frankly speaking, it's only the script that matters to me the most. If I like the script, then I just commit to myself and go ahead with it. But I also look at the commitment and confidence of the director of the film because it's him who will shape the film.

Vidya Balan

#53. Doing a film and saying, I've done a really dark film and now I have to do a comedy ... That's not me. If a script comes along and it's dark I'll absolutely do it and take the consequences. I'm not fussed about the image that goes along with it.

Daniel Craig

#54. Being the offspring of English teachers is a mixed blessing. When the film star says to you, on the air, 'It was a perfect script for she and I,' inside your head you hear, in the sarcastic voice of your late father, 'Perfect for she, eh? And perfect for I, also?'

Dick Cavett

#55. With film, you read the whole script three or four times, and you really have a solid blueprint of who your character is. Whereas in television, that blueprint is constantly changing and adapting, and sometimes you have to take a risk.

Graham Phillips

#56. For me, each film, each script is like a little journey in itself, and I'm reinventing the wheel. It's like how do I make this film. That's part of the pleasure and that's why I'm not a normal professional director.

Pawel Pawlikowski

#57. You can have a great character in a really bad script, and the film will never be seen. It's just too much work to commit to a film and not have it released.

Devin Ratray

#58. I have a bad feeling about this.

Han Solo

#59. If it were all in the script, why make the film?

Nicholas Ray

#60. I suppose I can do more for a script as an actor than as a writer - in the film sense.

Jack Nicholson

#61. I ideally would like to do three films every year. Every day, I pray for it. But I should like a script before I sign on a film.

Shahid Kapoor

#62. There's a film I did called 'Front of the Class', about a teacher who had Tourette's. That was a beautiful blend of drama and comedy. There's some great moments of levity in the script.

James Wolk

#63. I have always thought if you are going to make a film, it's much better to have an original script that will play to film's strengths.

William Boyd

#64. Writing film scripts is the hardest thing in the world. A script has to go to five or six drafts, and you need the feedback of other people and to keep coming back with a fresh eye, honing it down.

Gurinder Chadha

#65. In Canada, I've had success raising money. I think I was fortunate enough. But today, I would have to write a very, very bad script not to be financed for the next one. I'm assured at least of the next one, but you're always [only] as good as your last film. I think it's true for anyone.

Philippe Falardeau

#66. Writing a screen play: One page of an average screen play equals about one minute of screen time. Therefore, the script for a typical feature film should be about 100 pages long. In fact, many studios and producers won't look at screen plays that are much longer.

John Griesemer

#67. I want to have a great director, and also a great producer and co-stars. And there should be a tight script. After all, regardless of how the film turns out, I must have fun doing the film!

Kajol

#68. 'Liberace's a great film. It's a great piece of material. I have a great script and it's a great score.

Jerry Weintraub

#69. Even if I loved the script, the director has to be right because it's all about the filmmaker. It's their vision. They're the ones that go back into the editing room and reassemble the film.

Cameron Diaz

#70. I'd love to work in the States; I'd love to work anywhere where you get a good script and a good part to play. But I do love British film as well.

Laura Carmichael

#71. I'm writing a film called 'Bug.' It's an original script, and it's not about killer insects. It's a thriller set in a high school. The bug of the title refers to a surveillance device.

Wes Craven

#72. All of a sudden, those few pages of script that he had shown me with the weird images I could visualize all of that in my brain, and I knew that there was this mad little genius at work here and I really wanted to do the film.

Jack Nance

#73. The moment there's a foreigner in a film it gives a novelty to the script. We make regional films and we need to hype our films.

Arin Paul

#74. I guess the idea of not wanting to choose to direct a film, for which I've not read a script. It's a tough decision to make without seeing any pages. That's not to say that I don't have all the faith in the world in the spectacular writers.

J.J. Abrams

#75. You tend to get a script and you push it toward being the kind of film you want to make.

Peter Webber

#76. When I make a film - I direct my own film, I write my own script - that's what I want to hear from the audience. 'Oh, thank you, Jackie!'

Jackie Chan

#77. I never really do much research before signing a film. It is just the script and character that I concentrate on.

Kareena Kapoor Khan

#78. I write the script; nobody sees it, not the people that put the money in the picture. I cast who I want, and make the film. That's why I've always felt the only thing standing between me and greatness, is me. There's no excuse for me not to be great except that I'm not.

Woody Allen

#79. I remember reading the script for 'Dangerous Liaisons' and thinking that I could quite happily spend the rest of my life watching this film; the story and the writing were so wonderful.

Stephen Frears

#80. I love horror films, so I guess it's one of those things where I find myself interested in the script.

Elisha Cuthbert

#81. The script is the foundation, but it's not the full story for the film, which only comes alive with the actors.

Mora Stephens

#82. If you get a book which is 600 pages, you have to reduce it to a script of 100 pages. In two hours of film, you cannot possibly include all the characters.

Dino De Laurentiis

#83. I have thus decided to make a certain film and now begins the complicated and difficult-to-master work. To transfer rhythms, moods, atmosphere, tensions, sequences, tones and scents into words and sentences in a readable or at least understandable script. This is difficult but not impossible.

Ingmar Bergman

#84. I wish I'd done everything on Earth with you.

Baz Luhrmann

#85. I mean when I was working shall we say with Disney, you know they sent me the script for the film Hercules and I had to imagine what all the characters looked like. And to develop those characters, so nothing exists visually when I get the script.

Gerald Scarfe

#86. The thing is when you play a character it's the persona you bring across from a book to film, or book to script to film. If I play Frank Sinatra, there's gonna be things I do in a movie that Frank might not have done, but it's the personality that comes across.

Alex Pettyfer

#87. In film you have the script months ahead of time often, for a good film, but in television it seems like you might not get the script until a week or two weeks before you've got to film it. It's a little weird, but also quite challenging. It reminds me of repertory theatre.

Wesley Snipes

#88. I just believe in the movie. I don't care what the book was like. I don't care what the previous film was like or other films were like. I care only about the script I've got.

Billy Connolly

#89. House was the first film where I had no influence on the script. I had to buy the script with the game rights.

Uwe Boll

#90. 'City of Bohane' has been optioned for film, and I've finished a first draft of the script.

Kevin Barry

#91. When we shoot 24, there are so many things I have to worry about, from the script to technical things to my performance, that I don't have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season, which is like making 12 movies.

Kiefer Sutherland

#92. I'd like to have the script in a much better place from day one of shooting, rather than trying to continue to work on it while you shoot it. I think those are lessons you learn on any film.

Joseph Kosinski

#93. I mark a script like an exam, and I try not to do anything under 50 per cent. Similarly with the part. And also film is a peculiar thing, parts don't necessarily read in script form anything like as well as they can do when it comes to materialising.

John Hurt

#94. Filming a movie is different from a TV show because film is a lot quicker, you get to see the character progress and grow all in one script, and in television, you wait for a weekly update on each character.

Ariel Winter

#95. I need to react to a script, to feel strongly about it in some way. And I need it to be a complex character for sure. And also, I think a lot about what kind of audience there is for the film, what they're looking for and ways to connect with them in the playing of a character.

Jeremy Renner

#96. I like challenges. That's why if I read a script, and I feel, 'Oh, I can't do this,' I'll take that role, because if I feel like, 'Oh, I can do this,' I don't want to take that because I can't learn from that film.

Rinko Kikuchi

#97. Usually when I write a script, I have in mind some real people that I'm writing about, who don't always act in the film afterward.

Abbas Kiarostami

#98. It slightly depends on your perspective, sort of how you look at these things, but when I sit down to write a script, I'm not planning to write a script; I'm planning to make a film, and so I only see the script as being just a step there.

Alex Garland

#99. In a way, we tried to make 'The Salvation' a contemporary film with contemporary emotions. At the same time, in the script, you get a feel that all the small talk is not a part of our universe. It's more precise talk.

Mads Mikkelsen

#100. First, you do a piece of material that begins and ends and has a flow; it's not chopped up as in a film, where in an extreme case you might be doing the last scene of the script the first day that you go to work, and you don't know enough about the character you're playing.

Jean Stapleton