A wonderful thing about a book in contrast to a computer screen is that you can take it to bed with you.

Being a good television screenwriter requires an understanding of the way film accelerates the communication of words.

When characters change on screen it makes you feel better about yourself. You think 'Oh I change too I'm constantly becoming a better person.'

You need someone to tell you how to do things like hitting your marks or driving a car so it looks right or getting out of a car so it doesn't take a million years of screen time.

If a movie is really working you forget for two hours your Social Security number and where your car is parked. You are having a vicarious experience. You are identifying in one way or another with the people on the screen.

You sell a screenplay like you sell a car. If someone drives it off a cliff that's it.

Death is a billion-dollar business. They can't even pass a law where it takes seven days to get a gun. Why don't you have to go through the same kind of screening you do to get a driver's license? It's totally insane.

If you play it straight it's funny - the best comedy is always played straight down the middle. The adjustment is understanding from the screenplay that a moment is hilarious.

It used to happen in villages and towns in China that they would have - I guess you'd call them beauty contests - where all of the women of a particular village or town would be seated behind these screens or curtains with only their feet showing.

People are patronizing the theatres with renewed enthusiasm - there is an entire picnic-like attitude when families go out to see movies which is a very good sign. They want to see larger-than-life characters on the big screen and not just watch movies on television or on DVDs.