The Screenwriter's Bible 4th Edition

2. One Land/Many Voices 37
The biggest crisis that Jews face with Israel is that it is not a
Utopia.
    Amos Gitai, director 39
It s time for us to stop acting stupid.
    Amos Oz, novelist 42
I wanted to understand how life changes when you have an
appointment with death.
    Hany Abu-Assad, director 45
The story of Israel s foreign workers is very important.
    Dan Wolman, director 48
If we don t think things will improve what reason is there to live?
    Michal Aviad, director 51
The Orthodox implementation of Judaism in Israel is
cult worship.
    Meyer Levin, novelist 55
There is no life without tradition.
    Dover Kosashvili, director 60
I found it impossible to understand the fanatics
Arabs and Jews.
Ali Nasser, director 63
If it rains on the West Bank, it falls on Israel too.
Elia Suleiman, director 66
3.    Eastern Lights 69
I was indoctrinated to crave for something bigger than myself.
Joan Chen, director 71
I still think the Chinese culture had the most devout, profound,
and rich wisdom of the world.
Ann Hu, director 75
I believe that the Korean culture must be revived.
Im Kwon Taek, director 79
I learned that Chinese fathers do NOT have to have the power of life and death . . .
Gus Lee, novelist 82
Everyone wonders if they could have a second chance.
Edward Yang, director 86
He marches to a different taiko.
Hirokazu Kore-Eda, director 89
Don t make it rosy!
Joris Ivens, director 93
I approve of Kurosawa, but Ozu s work is closer to my heart.
Donald Richie, author 96
I believe that in Chinese society today there are moments when what s going on is a show.
Jia Zhangke, director 100
An ambiguous reaction to sexual slavery.
Geling Yan, novelist 104
The hunger in Jiangsu haunts her.
Yuan-tsung Chen, novelist 108
4.Transitions 113
People have said that I m hateful and bitter.
LeRoi Jones, playwright 115
She gave up her own bitterness in 1965.
Maya Angelou, novelist/poet 119
She dreamed of being Snow White.
Donyale Luna, actress 122
My father is in the Gullah tradition, my mother from the
mountains and very proud she is not Geechee.
Julie Dash, director 127
5.    What are Dissidents Good For? 131
All our societies are velvet prisons.
Miklos Haraszti, author 133
Legends about Orwell accrete like barnacles to a boat.
William Abrahams and Peter Stansky, authors 137
Every political movement which puts aside ethics and morals
carries within it seeds of its own destruction.
Vladimir Dedijer, author 141
Cossacks come in all different shapes and sizes. They don t have to
be on horseback.
Norma Barzman, author 145
The idea that women exist to please men is almost relentlessly my subject.
Kathy Acker, author 150
Beating the Blacklisters.
John Henry Faulk, novelist 155
It s not because the Panthers are black that I m at their disposal.
Jean Genet, playwright 158
It takes a certain chutzpah to tackle Joyce, Miller, and Genet.
Joseph Strick, director 162
We wondered why we were so committed to the Palestinians that we weren t looking at struggles at home.
Anne-Marie Mieville, director 167
The script asks why a beautiful, clever woman wanted to plant a bomb. Why?
Krystof Piesewicz, scriptwriter 170
6.    Are We European or Asian? 175
Looking at Turkey through a telephoto lens.
Alev Lytle Croutier, novelist 177
I m anti-fundamentalist. That s the main danger here now.
Orhan Pamuk, novelist 180
7.    Latin Beat 185
It was always my objective to change the literary language of Spain.
Juan Goytisolo, novelist 187
We wanted to escape the cliché of Latin American cinema showing miserable situations and miserable people.
Juan José Campanella, director 190
It was absurd that for a country with such a history of horrors, Argentina has no horror films.
Lucrecia Martel, director 194
Argentina was the worst military dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere.
Federico Luppi, actor/director 197
In Portugal, I didn t think we had heroes and we do!
Maria de Medeiros, actress/director 201
Goya is part of the past, present, and future.
Carlos Saura, director 205
A perfect match to do a ghost story in the middle of a much-larger ghost story, the Spanish Civil War.
Guillermo del Torro, director 208
Art, I always understood, was convulsive, never nice or lovely.
Arturo Ripstein, director 211
My life is about ups and downs, great joys and great losses.
Isabel Allende, novelist 214
Does God s light guide us or blind us?
Alejandro González Iñárritu, director 218
If you stay, you ll be killed.
Manuel Puig, novelist 222
Perhaps Frida might change the way people see Mexico and the
Mexican people.
Salma Hayek, actress, and Julie Taymor, director 227
Che said what he thought and acted accordingly. That kind
of integrity is very rare.
Walter Salles, director 231
To analyze a film from the point of view of being sexist in today s world is as dogmatic as to analyze it from a Marxist view.
Eliseo Subiela, director 235
This is he old Brazilian cinema coming back.
Andrucha Waddington, director 239
Asking Subcomandante Marcos the tough questions.
Nettie Wild, director 242
8.    Means and Ends 247
Sometimes the means for justifiable ends are so corrupt that the ends are no longer worth achieving.
Terry George, Jim Sheridan, Thaddeus O Sullivan,
and Neil Jordan, directors 249
The Irish people have been through every stage that colonialism can produce.
Gerald Hanley, novelist 254
Most upsetting were the Irish-Americans who came up with easy solutions to the Northern problem.
David Hanly, novelist 260
An undiplomatic diplomat.
Conor Cruise O Brien, author 264
9.    The Veiled Society 267
Literary discussions opened a window to life in Iran.
Azar Nafisi, author 269
Many ideologies wanted to get rid of the Shah and have a
democratic system, and it ended up with the Islamic Republic.
Tamineh Milani, director 273
I wanted to draw on the contradictions and absurdities of modern life.
Babak Payami, director 276
The Afghan people understood that the U.S. supported the Taliban when they first came to power because of oil interests.
Siddiq Barmak, director 279
We have to accept responsibility for what we create.
Abbas Kiarostami, director 283
I cannot be indifferent when writers and poets aren t published and directors don t get a chance to make films.
Bahman Farmanara, director 288
I thought of prison as a microcosm of society.
Manijeh Hekmat, director 292
I am criticizing part of our own culture, which forgets that a mother is first of all a woman.
Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, director 297
A metaphor for the loss of identity
Mariam Shahriar, director 300
I wanted to present a real look at the Kurds.
Bahman Ghobadi, director 303
Reality is worse than what I show in the film.
Dariush Mehrjui, director 306
Haunted by the Afghan plight.
Majid Majidi, director 310
Pessimistic about the fate of Afghanistan, her perenially wartorn native land.
Nelofer Pazira, actress 314
In New York, I could see all the art and films I never saw before. How can you create something in Iran when you have nothing to see there?
Samira Makhmalbaf, director 318
10.    Middle East 321
The Arab world is infinitely large in terms of space, and infinitely
small in its vision.
Etel Adnan, author/artist 323
It was important to show something intimate from the Arab culture to French and other Occidental audiences.
Karim Dridi, director 328
As an artist, fundamentalism interests me because of its obvious effect on anybody creative.
Atef Hetata, director 332
11.    Family 335
I perfectly understand I am symbolically committing a symbolic
murder of the father.
Jacob Berger, director 337
My father told me stories about India and the way he and his family were treated by the British.
Hanif Kureishi, author 341
An excuse to imagine a marriage.
Todd Field, director 347
The big thing in my life is that I met the right man.
Christina Stead, author 351
Everything I did was motivated by my grandfather.
Liev Schreiber, director 354
Adoptive parents can t give you a culture that s not their own.
Chris Eyre, director 358
Musical families in exile.
Heddy Honigmann, director 361
What fascinated me about La Dolce Vita, L Avventura, and 81/2 is that nobody ever has any children.
Doris Lessing, author 364
Ideas live. Ideas vibrate.
Jon Robin Baitz, playwright 369
How history puts its mark on private lives.
Jeremy Irons, actor, and Sinead Cusack, actress 372
What would you like engraved on your tombstone?
Alfred Hitchcock, director 376
If we protect nature, it will be better for education, for the
children.
Jacques Perrin, producer 379
Toujours l amour.
Diane Johnson, author 382
12. G-d forbid that we should use His name 385
How could our people have killed six million Jews?
Rolf Hochhuth, playwright 387
One must not love oneself so much as to avoid getting involved in
the risks of life.
John Duigan, director 396
The Hurons were more Christian than the Christians.
Brian Moore, author 400
Do you believe in God?
Michael Tolkin, author 403
I can t stand the part of Catholicism that says sex is a sin.
Franco Brusati, director 407
Sex is very limited in a Catholic marriage.
Nino Manfredi, director 410
A Don Juan type homosexual and heterosexual.
Francis Girod, director 414
13.    Balkan Bombshell 417
We worked like Charlie Chaplin, with humor and tragedy.
Ademir Kenovich, director 419
In the Balkan mentality the people are very obsessive.
Goran Paskaljevic, director 422
That bomb is a metaphor for any country.
Danis Tanovic, director 426
14.    Another Way of Life 431
Windows to another world.
Aktan Abdykalykov, director 433
Putting a face on Invisible people.
Zacharias Kunuk, director 436
Most films dealing with homosexuality are too positive, too romantic,
too sentimental.
Patrice Chereau, director 439
A human link among the losers.
Alexander Payne, director 443
Personally, I don t think the world is going to end.
Don McKellar, director 446
Life s quixotic turns.
Patrice Leconte, director 449
Humanity, quiet, dignity, tolerance.
Eric Valli, director 453
My first love is music.
Satyajit Ray, director 456
Challenges in a rootless existence.
Ivan Fila, director 459
Dracula energy without grace and love without consequence
Leonard Wolf, author 462
I m probably an outsider in the gay community.
Gus Van Sant, director 467
15. Journeys 471
After Afghanistan was bombed, international filmmakers have flashbacks
to horrors in their own lands.
Memories of Cairo 473
He saw an American and he detested what he saw.
Encounter in Montenegro 479

Index 485