Occupation: Screenwriter Birth: March 10, 1953
Now we really like to put people in boxes. As men, we do it because we don't understand characters that aren't ourselves and we aren't willing to put….
A creative person has to believe in the unseen and the untouched..
Usually the characters are where I start. Then I continually ask myself, 'What's the worst thing that could happen to this character?'.
I just love actors, and I've always loved actors. I empathize with their job. Everyone thinks it's easy, and it ain't. To be that vulnerable and brav….
I was trying to talk about where we are right now as a society, and talk about the fear we all live in, and certainly since 9-11, how it's affected u….
I don't think writers should write about answers. I think writers should write about questions..
You have to be careful of the advice you take..
We give you characters we'd feel very comfortable judging, and then go: 'Oh yeah? Watch this'..
We crash into each other just so we can feel something..
What happens when these young men and women come home so scarred and so wounded? We are ignoring that fact. We're just shoving them under the carpet..
We're trying to reinvent Bond. He's 28 - no Q, no gadgets..
I've lived in America for many years. I mean, I love being a Canadian, but I truly identify with America. I love America so much..
What I love about writing is the contradictions we all embody as human beings..
I like taking genres and subverting them. I did that with In the Valley of Elah. I said, "Okay, this is just a murder mystery. Relax." And then, tw….
Every 10 years, I know less about love and relationships. The smarter I get, the less I know..
Walk through Santa Monica and try to find somebody who knows a young man or woman who's in this war. Here, war is an intellectual concept. If you los….
I found two true stories. One was in 2003. One was the beginning of 2004. I decided to meld them. Richard Davis' story which is the largest portion o….
You don't do pictures because the audience is ready for them. You do them because there's something gnawing at you, something inside..
We all have these tendencies in us that could go this way or that. I think that's the real key in writing. To look at a character without judgment..
The wrong one will start saying things like "withdraw with honor." We've heard phrases like that before, and they led to thousands and thousands of d….