Bernhard Schlink Quotes

Authors of books are not given very much control over the films that are made from their books.

I know a movie and a book are two different things and you are going do different media in different ways. No author can want a movie to be exactly like the book because then it will be a bad movie.

You have plausible deniability, as they say in politics, as an author with movies. Because if the movie is terrible, you simply say they failed to catch the genius of the book.

I'm also a huge cinephile, and I have witnessed that to honor the book literally word-for-word never makes a good movie.

It is customary for the writer to sneer that Hollywood has traduced their book. Well, I adore my film.

I always felt once it goes into movie land, the book belongs to someone else.

I think it's always a challenge to adapt a beautiful literary work into a fresh and alive film.

I'd like to think that my films are personal enough to exist without hearkening back to their respective novels.

After Strangelove I also started work on an adaptation of The Collector.

Movies can't ruin books. They can only ruin movies.

Unfortunately, the author of a book pretty much gives up control of the story when the producers take over a book to make it into a movie.

I've made seventeen or eighteen films now, only two of which have been original screenplays, all the others have been based on short stories or novels, and I find the long short story ideal for adaptation.

I recently watched Peter Brook's Lord of the Flies, and it wasn't a favorite film. Then I saw the one that was made in 1990, which in my opinion didn't match up to the original.

I am very lucky: not very many writers can say they genuinely like the film of their book. However, I do.

All I can say is that I am not one of those writers who want 100% of their book in the film. I recognize that film is a different medium and the filmmaker must have the right to bring some new elements to the table, provided the soul of the book is preserved.

Most films are rooted in a book or a comic strip, but I don't go out there saying I want to do adaptations.

I don't hold with the notion that only bad books make good movies.

Oh, filmmakers, please don't take my soft book and turn it into a horror, or take my horror and make it soft.

I'm not of the opinion that the next logical step for a book is for it to be made into a film.

The truth is that I know very few novelists who have been satisfied with the adaptation of their books for the screen.

Hope E. L .James doesn't think I'm being a prankster. I really want to adapt her novels for the screen. Christian Grey is a writer's dream.

Films are always different from books.

The question I ask myself when adapting a book is how do I be true to the spirit and soul of the character? How would I describe this character in my medium? If you asked one person to do a painting of something and another to create a sculpture of it, you'll never ask, 'Why doesn't the painting look like the sculpture?'

I felt like I haven't had the typical experience of a novelist whose book becomes a movie.

I think successful movies that are based on books are their own thing. I think if you're too faithful, word by word, character trait to character trait, it can hurt the movie.