I studied writing at university, and I actually majored in screenwriting. Then I went to work as a bookseller and then as a sales rep and publicist and then various editorial jobs until I ended up with HarperCollins in Australia.
If you're writing a screenplay for a feature, you don't have any involvement with the casting process, the editing process, the set design, the costume design, or any of that stuff.
My first in, my first break, was I met a director and got to talking with her, and she happened to be casting this movie that she had written. That was ten years ago. That got me to Hollywood. I got paid $700 bucks.
I read the script for Wonder Boys, and I said that was almost perfect, it was so classy, cool and funny. It's a really specific thing. We stuck to it, it turned out good and a lot of people liked it.
Directing a film requires a different set of skills. It is a difficult job, and I am happy being an actor.
I love having made a movie.
I want to have more original-screenplay Oscars than anybody who's ever lived! So much, I want to have so many that - four is enough. And do it within ten films, all right, so that when I die, they rename the original-screenplay Oscar 'the Quentin.' And everybody's down with that.
I do want to get more involved with clothing, TV shows, movies.
I do have aspirations when it comes to directing, I suppose, but in a sort of a vague way. It would probably come about if I found a project that I really felt passionate about.
Sometimes you get involved in a film because you just love making movies and you want to keep working. Sometimes you're lucky enough to find something that you really care about. Therefore, now I'm emphasizing developing my own projects and writing my own screenplays, so that I can do exactly what I like to do.
A writer doesn't really have much of a function on a movie set.
Everyone has an idea that they think would be a great movie. Everyone has a cousin who they think you should work with.
My passion is doing movies, so as long as I keep doing that I will be happy.
Filmmaking in general is my second career. I thought that writing wasn't practical, so I went to business school and got an MBA, and I worked three years in grant management.
If I've got a script, you think I'll go to Hollywood to get money? I was bored with the people around me, so I just created my own movie, my own character. I'm the story of my own movie, and you know what? My movie is going to be better.
Living in L.A., I was embarrassed to say that I wanted to be an actor.
Writing is the life blood of everything in Hollywood. Without writers, there are no scripts, no acting work.
As a writer, I think about films I work on in a traditional Hollywood kind of a way. I'm curious to see how it translates.
I'm a very slow screenwriter. It takes time for me to write a screenplay. Also, I feel it's not my strength.
Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated.
The problem with trying to make a film good and have it work for an audience is the problem of trying to tell a story well. The shape or the color of it doesn't matter.
Maybe at 55, I would like to direct. I will go the Angelina Jolie way.
I'm hoping one day I can make one really good film.
It was interesting to write ad films and scripts for TV shows before I moved on to writing a feature film. That helped me grow as a writer, and I also found out how long I could sit in front of a computer and see something through.
That was something that I learned from Alan Ball from “Six Feet Under." He didn”t really like to have too many pop culture references because they don”t really hold up after a few years.
