If I want to write a movie, I'll write a screenplay, but if I have an idea for a book, it's something that I think can only be done novelistically.
Interpretation
The quote distinguishes between writing formats and emphasizes the unique narrative possibilities of novels.
Bret Easton Ellis expresses the idea that writing a movie and writing a book require different approaches due to the inherent nature of each medium. He believes that while screenplays can efficiently convey ideas visually, the depth, complexity, and exploration of themes in a book can only be achieved through a novelistic approach, suggesting a reverence for the literary form.
In practice
During a writers' workshop, one might use this quote to discuss the differences between screenplay and novel writing.
I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.
You do not write a novel for praise, or thinking of your audience. You write for yourself; you work out between you and your pen the things that intrigue you
I felt lethal, on the verge of frenzy. My nightly bloodlust overflowed into my days and I had to leave the city. My mask of sanity was a victim of impending slippage. This was the bone season for me and I needed a vacation.
But this was what happened when you didn't want to visit and confront the past: the past starts visiting and confronting you.
I come to a red light, tempted to go through it, then stop once I see a billboard sign that I don’t remember seeing and I look up at it. All it says is 'Disappear Here' and even though it’s probably an ad for some resort, it still freaks me out a little and I step on the gas really hard and the car screeches as I leave the light.
But this road doesn't go anywhere,” I told him. “That doesn't matter.” “What does?” I asked, after a little while. “Just that we're on it, dude,” he said.
I'll be writing songs till I die. There's just no question.
I love New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.
Drama lies in extreme exaggeration of the feelings, an exaggeration that dislocates flat everyday reality.
The difficulty in the way of writing a children's play is that Barrie was born too soon. Many people must have felt the same about Shakespeare. We who came later have no chance. What fun to have been Adam, and to have had the whole world of plots and jokes and stories at one's disposal.
The white paintings came first; my silent piece came later.
The essence of cinema is editing.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.