Michael Arndt Quotes

#1. Michael Arndt, that guy - you're just supposed to say nice things about other writers, but I worship Michael Arndt.

Damon Lindelof

#2. Good writing is deceptive in that it hides its own artifice - it makes it seem easy.

Michael Arndt

#3. Every problem offers an opportunity for a solution. if you are in the right frame of mind to find it.

Michael Arndt

#4. Sometimes I wonder if I'm falling in love with her. Sometimes I wonder how long I can pretend I'm not.

Karina Halle

#5. Working at Pixar has been like my graduate school for screenwriting.

Michael Arndt

#6. The way you think either stands in your way or assists you in achieving your goals.

Michael Arndt

#7. Who you think you are is only a thought.

Michael Arndt

#8. I remember thinking about how fun it would be to be a reporter. I had a dream, when I was little, to become a police officer and a crime investigator. It depends on what kind of stories you're reporting, but it's very similar. You're finding out the truth.

Katia Winter

#9. Writing a great script - not just a good one, but a great one - is almost an impossible task.

Michael Arndt

#10. Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance while they grow; but crush'd or trodden to the ground, diffuse their balmy sweets around.

Oliver Goldsmith

#11. We have the freedom to excel or inhibit our potential. You are the grand designer of your thoughts and emotions. At some level or another you are the one who chooses which thoughts to accept and which ones to ignore. That can be a very empower realization.

Michael Arndt

#12. My thing is that most scripts arent bad scripts, theyre just not finished yet.

Michael Arndt

#13. In terms of writing characters or stories, at least initially, there's no difference between live-action and animation. A good story is a good story, whatever the medium.

Michael Arndt

#14. Adversity challenges the masks we hide behind, revealing sides of ourselves we have not yet comfortably with the world outside. It is why we dislike adversity, because we have to face what we don't yet understand about ourselves.

Michael Arndt

#15. If you only know something one way, then you don't really know it.

Michael Arndt

#16. One of my favorite films is 'Late Spring' by Yasujiro Ozu. To me, it represents film as art.

Michael Arndt

#17. My God, there are so many mediocre screenplays out there.

Michael Arndt

#18. Changing how you think costs you no money and it takes no special talent. It does take a commitment on your part to be different.

Michael Arndt

#19. I had read enough mediocre scripts and was determined not to inflict another one on the world.

Michael Arndt

#20. If you write a bunch of different characters with a bunch of different opinions, you end up with these long scenes of everyone standing around talking.

Michael Arndt

#21. I can write two scripts concurrently, but I usually prefer to do one at a time. However, I also usually have 5 or 6 story ideas that are percolating in my head at any one time, so it can get a little crowded in there.

Michael Arndt

#22. The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work.

Idries Shah

#23. I like to begin every screenplay with a burst of delusional self-confidence. It tends to fade pretty quickly, but (for me, at least) there doesn't seem to be any other way to start writing a script.

Michael Arndt

#24. Failure can only exist from stagnant perceptions. Everything is a process of learning and if you learn something useful, you have success.

Michael Arndt

#25. She knew what my mother did not: either you want a clean floor or you want to use a mop, but you can't have both.

David Sedaris

#26. Line up your thoughts up for potential, take action and success will follow.

Michael Arndt

#27. The fluidity of thought is based on the flexibility of beliefs and the emotional boundaries surrounding them.

Michael Arndt

#28. All thought is created, therefore we are all creators of whatever world we live in.

Michael Arndt

#29. You never want your second act or the whole movie to just be this relentless march towards its goal. You want things to take the audience by surprise.

Michael Arndt

#30. The best writing really does come from the deepest, most private part of you.

Michael Arndt