screenwriter quotes

Explore the minds of the brilliant screenwriters and get inspired by their words of wisdom and creativity. Unleash your storytelling potential with the best quotes from screenwriters.

Working for Warner Brothers is like fucking a porcupine: It’s a hundred pricks against one.

- Wilson Mizner

Treat a whore like a lady and a lady like a whore.

- Wilson Mizner

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research.

- Wilson Mizner

There isn't a particle of you that I don't know, remember, and want.

- Noel Coward

Strange how potent cheap music is.

- Noel Coward

It's a pity you didn't have a little more brandy. It might have made you more agreeable!

- Noel Coward

I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives.

- Noel Coward

You kissed me because you were awfully nice and I was awfully nice and we both liked kissing very much. It was inevitable.

- Noel Coward

Couldn't you see that all my flippancy was only a mask, hiding my real emotions – crushing them down desperately!

- Noel Coward

Success is far more perilous than failure, isn’t it? You’ve got to be doubly strong and watchful and wary.

- Noel Coward

Time is the reef upon which all our mystic ships are wrecked.

- Noel Coward

It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.

- Noel Coward

It's a sad reflection on society how many people are shocked by honesty... and how few by dishonesty.

- Noel Coward

You'll never decide what you want until you've decided who you are.

- Noel Coward

Wouldn't it be dreadful to live in a country where they didn't have tea?

- Noel Coward

Work hard, do the best you can, don't ever lose faith in yourself and take no notice of what other people say about you.

- Noel Coward

Wit ought to be a glorious treat, like caviar. Never spread it about like marmalade.

- Noel Coward

What I adore is supreme professionalism. I’m bored by writers who can write only when it’s raining.

- Noel Coward

Television is for appearing on - not for looking at.

- Noel Coward

My importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my importance to myself is tremendous. I am all I have to work with, to play with, to suffer and to enjoy. It is not the eyes of others that I am wary of, but of my own. I do not intend to let myself down more than I can possibly help, and I find that the fewer illusions I have about myself or the world around me, the better company I am for myself.

- Noel Coward