I’ve done very well in the film business. Whenever I have wanted something, the film business has given it to me. I’m very fortunate. My big problem in life has always been, ‘What do I want?’ John Patrick Shanley Read Quote
Back when you were doing plays like ‘The Miracle Worker,’ you had 20, 25 people in the cast. When you go to make the film, that’s not such a stretch. But when you’re doing plays like ‘Proof,’ it’s just five people or something in the thing, and it gets to be a really difficult re-conception. John Patrick Shanley Read Quote
The modern economics of the theater is such that we write plays with fewer and fewer characters. John Patrick Shanley Read Quote
When I write a screenplay – and I think this is true for a lot of people – you direct the movie. That’s what writing a screenplay is. John Patrick Shanley Read Quote
Playwriting is the last great bastion of the individual writer. It’s exciting precisely because it’s where the money isn’t. Money goes to safety, to consensus. It’s not individualism. John Patrick Shanley Read Quote
Women consume, and they must be directed what to consume, or they may identify you as lunch. John Patrick Shanley Read Quote
The Miracle Worker’ is just such an incredibly powerful play on stage, and is so kinetic, and athletic. John Patrick Shanley Read Quote
I’ve been writing plays since the seventies and only came to moviemaking when I basically realized that I needed some money to pay the rent. I started to watch films with an eye to figuring out how to write them. John Patrick Shanley Read Quote
