Val Kilmer Quotes

I'm a huge David Lindsay-Abaire fan. If I could write, I would want to write like him.

David Mamet we all know is a great screenplay writer and playwright and a great director. If you like him, you like him. If you hate him, you really hate him. He's someone who's into controversy, you know what I mean? That's David Mamet.

Pretty much, the writer's in charge in theater. Of course you're in charge with the director, but no one can change your words. People can give you notes, but you don't have to take them. In Hollywood you take them and you cash your check and that's your job. It's very different.

One of things I'd love to do one day is a Shakespeare with Trevor Nunn. I've done musicals with him, but never Shakespeare. There's no one better.

I guess the first screenplay of mine that was done was 'Falling in Love' with Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep.

I'm a playwright who gets involved in movies when I'm not writing a play.

I usually just do, like, studio jobs, re-writes and stuff.

When you write for a show that's not yours, your job is to hear the voices of the characters and write as best you can for those voices.

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.

I've been so lucky to work with some great, great writers: Tony Kushner and Yasmina Reza.

The conventional wisdom with David Mamet is, you do not change a word. And that agrees with me. If you want to change any of David's words, it's like wanting to change the iambic pentameter in Shakespeare - you should do something else.

I love working with great actors.

I'm a dramatist.

I'm just attracted to good material and great characters and that can come in any form, whether it's television or film or a theatre piece.

And then, all of a sudden, you're like, all that's great and fun, but Arthur Miller's in my dressing room. This is the third night he's been here and he sits in my dressing room for an hour after each show, and talks to me for an hour. So I'm pretty spoiled right now.

For me the writing, when I'm going to direct it myself, is really just the first draft, and I don't change it very much; I only change it on average about two lines per movie.

I spent six years touring the world playing Shakespeare, Molire, Shaw, Goldsmith... But I slowly came to realise that the people you are working with are as important as the parts you play, and that there were lots of interesting people working in film and T.V.

Once, I optioned a novel and tried to do a screenplay on it, which was great fun, but I was too respectful. I was only 100 pages into the novel and I had about 90 pages of movie script going. I realized I had a lot to learn.

I love novels, but I'm not a novelist. I'm just a dramatist, which means I write lines for actors. That's all I have ever wanted to do.

I would love to do more films. I really like the whole process of doing that. I like how close you become to everybody.

Everything I've wanted to turn into a film becomes something new and different when it becomes a movie... Each time I work with an author, I say to them, 'A book and a movie are different things.'

I'd love to work with Michelle Williams. I think that she's incredible. She's such a great actress and I love her.

I want to go wherever there's great work. I'm a huge fan of film primarily. But you can get a great TV show and get attached to it. Making a great film is forever, though, so I always want to be part of film. It's my first love.

I've continued to write fiction since being in television. TV is a different kind of writing, but it's all writing. It was David Milch of 'Deadwood' who helped me to see it that way. We later collaborated on the short-lived 'John from Cincinnati,' but I'm very proud of the work we did together.

I fell in love with Alan Ayckbourn the day I met him and, starting with 'The Norman Conquests,' went on to do eight plays with him. He tells you just what you want to know and has a brilliant way of solving problems.