The appreciation I have for great writing continues to grow the longer I live and act. Here are a few of my favorite quotes on the subject.

"Writers are vastly underrated and underpaid. It is totally impossible to make a great picture out of a lousy script; it is impossible, on the other hand for a mediocre director to screw up a great script altogether."
-- Billy Wilder, legendary writer and director for films like Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot and many, many others)

"I wrote because I wanted to make time stand still, to hold onto them (my family)."
-- Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie 2005 miniseries

"I rewrite a lot. I don't have that kind of talent (to just write), you know. I saw kids (in school) who could draw beautiful pictures. My talent is that I just try and try and try and try again and little by little it comes to something that I think is okay."
-- Francis Ford Coppola, producer, writer and director of films like Apocalypse Now, Peggy Sue Got Married, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and The Godfather Trilogy.

"Endings should be surprising but inevitable."
-- Flannery O'Connor, authour of novels and short stories like A Good Man is Hard to Find, The River, The Life You Save May Be Your Own and others.

Oh, man, this is SO true! Part of what makes us look good or bad as actors is the quality of the script we have to speak. Trying to make bad writing sound natural just isn't happening. The more work I get, the more this is proven . . .