The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement
Interpretation
Screenwriters must convey deep messages concisely while maintaining a sense of flow and ease.
Raymond Chandler highlights the unique challenge of screenwriting, where effective storytelling requires conveying significant themes and emotions in a compact format. The process involves distilling the narrative to its essence, ensuring that even with fewer words, the story retains a natural rhythm and captivates the audience.
In practice
In a film workshop, a mentor might quote Chandler to encourage students to be concise.
Undoubtedly the stories about them [hard-boiled detectives] had a fantastic element. Such things happened, but not so rapidly, nor to so close-knit a group of people, nor within so narrow a frame of logic. This was inevitable because the demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Organized crime is the dirty side of the sharp dollar.
When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.
If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.
People think that my favorite roles to do are villains, but I find comedy to be the most challenging and rewarding.
Novel-writing is, for the novelist, a game of let's pretend.
The arts have a development which comes not only from the individual but also from a whole acquired force, the civilization which precedes us. One cannot do just anything. A talented artist cannot do whatever he pleases. If he only used his gifts, he would not exist. We are not the masters of what we produce. It is imposed on us.
Creativity: Take the obvious, add a cupful of brains, a generous pinch of imagination, a bucketful of courage and daring, stir well and bring to a boil.
The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, sets the soul vibrating automatically.
Being an artist is this kind of occupation in which you have to make people care about your obsession.
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