Shane Black Quotes

I think the most important thing is to, without belligerence, stand up for what want. Argue compellingly if someone tries to change your script. Yeah, legally they can if they want to. But rather than give up, as some of the writers do, and just wail about how your script got rewritten, it's much more difficult - but well within the realm of possibility - to argue very sincerely, calmly, and reasonably from your point of view, such that the director or the producer might decide, "All right, let's do it that way."

Soft words and hard arguments.

When you're trying to persuade people, more often than not, they feel you're being pushy. When you focus on influencing them, they're much less defensive and open to hearing what you have to say.

I think what I learned is that just because somebody says you can't talk to them or just because somebody says they don't have an answer for you, you don't stop.

One of the tests that I frequently use in an interaction is I push on the idea and what I'm looking for is both flexibility & persistence.

What people generally tell you is, "We'll all agree," and then once you sign, they expect to get their own way. I think it was a bit of a surprise that I was still very headstrong even after signing. I wasn't so happy to get a deal that I would agree to anything. In fact, I disagreed on most things and got my way on most things, which I think was to all of our benefit. But they wanted the record to come out, and I wanted the record to come out, so we had to work together.

When all else failed, she tried being reasonable.

Sometimes you need conflict in order to come up with a solution. Through weakness, oftentimes, you can't make the right sort of settlement, so I'm aggressive, but I also get things done, and in the end, everybody likes me.

I like tough relationships. I think relationships with conflict are good for you - you learn. But you can't listen too much. I have a strong point of view, and it's important that I fight for my ideas.

Obama seems like he tries to talk everyone into what he believes - and that's part of why we elected him, because he's a calm, reasonable guy - but behind that, there has to be some fight. You have to be able to take a few punches and throw a few punches.

Fight as hard as you can, and then understand there's going to have to be some amount of reasonable compromise.

I've had meetings where there were literally, like, 12 angry men in a room and me. And even when everyone shot me down, I somehow dug in one more time.

Don't beg, don't threaten and don't assume you're always right.

Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.

When you disagree with somebody else, they often tend to get very defensive. But that doesn't stop me from doing the kind of work that I want to do.

When I have one-on-ones, I usually win those.

It's always a balance... being clear-headed but being aggressive and as combative as you need to be.

I think everybody has a point where they're not going to cross that line. There were a couple of things with Comedy Central that we had to fight for. They were pretty cool about everything. I don't think there was anything we really fought for that didn't happen.

I get the reason that you should be willing to negotiate sometimes. But you also ought to be willing to throw a punch.

That's pretty much what every scene is about, getting people to see your point of view. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

And a diplomatist is one who lets the other fellow think he's getting his way, while all the time he's having his own. It never does any special harm to let people have their way with their mouths.

I'm never argumentative for the sake of being argumentative, I don't think. And more than ever, I've had to be willing to fight just to get records released, or just to be able to walk away with a little bit of self-respect and pride.

The best lesson that I've learned from my mother is that she just never accepted no for an answer and I think that's something that has stayed with me.

Somebody tells me no, they're not going to keep telling me no, because I'm going to bother them to the point where it's a lot easier for them to say yes than keep saying no.

When you get in the mud with a pig, you get dirty and the pig gets happy.