You have to actually write a book to get better at writing books.

Think like a salesman ... if you have a product you need to sell, which would you rather have? More potential buyers? Or fewer?

Look, I know she's dead, but I have a new crush on Joan Fontaine ...

... as soon as you get your first one-star review, you have made it. I mean it ... Then, have a glass of wine, stick your tongue out and move on.

... you need to make us want you again.

... the decision to kill Maya was easy.

Stop focusing on all the things you haven't done, and start focusing on the things you have.

There are only two types of feedback that matter.

As William Goldman said about Hollywood, “Nobody knows anything.” Learn all you can but trust your instincts.

No one’s in the building. The air is thick like dark molasses and the quiet, unnerving.

How do you trick yourself into believing that you can still do it? That you should keep going even if you know deep down in your soul you’re not going to “win” anymore?

As it is said, film is the rare art form that the artist cannot afford the canvas on which to paint. Digital filmmaking has changed that.

Needs more muppets.

We argue because our art form, screenwriting, is different from so many other types of writing. In screenwriting, form literally follows function.

Foreign films generally assume the audience is savvier, capable of putting two and two together without having to shove things down their throat.