WIST Quotations

Goldman, William -- Adventures in the Screen Trade, ch. 1 (1983)

Dave — Tue, 25 May 2021 14:44:32 +0000

NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING. Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess — and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.

William Goldman (1931-2018) American screenwriter, novelist
Adventures in the Screen Trade, ch. 1 (1983)
(Source)

Bird, Brad -- “How Pixar Conquered the Planet,” The Guardian (12 Nov 2004)

Dave — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 22:04:57 +0000

I reject that whole point of view — that animation is a children’s medium. The way people talk about it is, well, hey, it’s a good thing I have kids, because now I get to see this. Well, hey, no, man! You can just go and see it. There’s no other art form that is defined in such a narrow way. It’s narrow-minded, and I can’t wait for it to die.

Brad Bird (b. 1957) American director, animator and screenwriter [Phillip Bradley Bird]
“How Pixar Conquered the Planet,” The Guardian (12 Nov 2004)
(Source)

Bird, Brad -- Interview with Drew Tailor, IndieWire (20 Dec 2011)

Dave — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 17:26:18 +0000

If you explain the basics of any one of these ideas, they probably will sound as nutty as a cooking French rat or a silent film starring robots in a post-apocalyptic world. Each one of those films, when we were in preparation on them, the financial community said each one of them stunk and none of them had the ability to be a financial success. And then the film would come out and they’d go, “Well, they did it that time but the next one sounds like a piece of crap.”

Brad Bird (b. 1957) American director, animator and screenwriter [Phillip Bradley Bird]
Interview with Drew Tailor, IndieWire (20 Dec 2011)
(Source)

Brown, Rita Mae -- Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer’s Manual (1988)

Dave — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 18:06:57 +0000

As a woman, I find it very embarrassing to be in a meeting and realize I’m the only one in the room with balls.

Rita Mae Brown (b. 1944) American author, playwright
Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer’s Manual (1988)
(Source)

On working in the TV and film industry.

Richardson, James -- Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)

Dave — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 17:36:06 +0000

Even at the movies, we laugh together, we weep alone.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)