Robert Towne

“A movie should be a question, not an answer.”

“What you don't know can kill you.”

“Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown.”

“Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.”

“Structure is the most important thing in a screenplay, and the hardest thing to get right.”

“Most people are not trying to be bad. They're just trying to protect themselves.”

“I hate writing. I love having written.”

“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”

“The single most important thing in a script is the theme. It's the engine that drives the whole thing.”

“To me, the trick is not to create a character, it's to find a character.”

“The ugliest thing in the world is a beautiful woman without the brains or courage to know she is beautiful.”

“I don't think that there's any great mystery to writing. It's just hard work.”

“The truth is a matter of circumstance; it's not a constant.”