Shane Black Quotes

American - Actor Born: December 16, 1961

The great thing about detective stories, in particular, the case can always be interesting as well as the characters. Shane Black

Great, Interesting, Always, Detective

One of my favorite L.A. movies is 'Ed Wood,' and it's about how Bela Lugosi went from being this movie star personality to living in a little bungalow with his cats in the valley where, if you walked by, you'd have no idea. He'd come out and get his paper, and you'd go, 'That guy looks familiar.' Shane Black

Cats, Personality, Movies, You, Living

Estimation, assessment, looking back, retrospecting things - those are intellectual concepts, and they're always so subject to shifts in the wind. Shane Black

Wind, Looking Back, Looking, Back

I do think the challenge, in a way for me, is to write a narrative film and when you finish watching it you feel like it's a collage. You tell the narrative, you tell the story, but you feel like you've created this tapestry. But it also has a shape, a story. Shane Black

Challenge, Think, Story, Me, You, Feel

Writers are nerds. Shane Black

No one cares about your ideas. They're not going to come knocking on your door looking for ideas. They're going to want some concrete evidence that you have the potential to serve them or give them value for money. So that's my advice: write your spec scripts, no matter what. They're essential as a calling card, even if they don't get produced. Shane Black

Money, Ideas, Door, Value, Looking, You

You can win more arguments then you might think as a writer, even though you legally have no recourse, and your script can get muddied and altered in any way possible. You can use reason, logic, and passion to argue persuasively for a case in your favor. Shane Black

Passion, Think, Win, Logic, You, Way

An action movie should, like any other, follow the narrative traditions of literature. That means there should be subtlety, a slow build and a gradual bringing together of all the separate threads of the plot. To see all of it coming together slowly is very rewarding for the audience. Shane Black

Together, Action, Slow, Literature, See

An action film can have too much action; picture an equaliser on a stereo, with all the knobs pegged at 10. It becomes a cacophony and is, ultimately, quite boring. Shane Black

Picture, Action, Too Much, Boring, Film

I always have humour in my action movies. I think characters that make jokes under fire are more real. It somehow helps put you in their shoes. Shane Black

Shoes, Fire, Think, Action, Movies, You

You have to keep surprising your audience. Shane Black

You, Audience, Your, Keep, Surprising

Writing scripts is a laborious job that can be a real pain. Shane Black

Job, Pain, Writing, Real, Scripts

I'm ashamed to say this, but I watched every episode of 'Starsky and Hutch' as a kid. I loved that show, but now I think it's stupid - they'd have a car chase for no reason, then Paul Michael Glaser would shoot the car and it would blow up. Shane Black

Car, Stupid, Think, Loved, Say, Now

I have these guilty pleasures, these failed films that don't work at all, but I'll watch them if they're on. Like 'The Game.' Shane Black

Work, Game, Guilty, Watch, Like, Failed

Any time anyone fires bullets in an action movie that don't hit the target it immediately undermines the movie. Shane Black

Time, Action, Target, Bullets, Fires

I hate 'The Professional.' It's one of the worst action/adventure movies ever made. Shane Black

Hate, Professional, Movies, Worst, Made

I don't mind women who want to act. That's fine. It's odd that men want to act, in that there's still a degree of vanity associated with it. Shane Black

Women, Men, Mind, Vanity, Want, Degree

Once I started selling scripts for a great deal of money - action scripts, no less, which people tend to pooh-pooh anyway - then I started to get some backlash. Which I didn't mind. Shane Black

Great, Money, Mind, People, Action, Deal

I think it's very admirable, in a superhero movie, to be able to take a few risks. Shane Black

Risks, Think, Superhero, Admirable, Take

Probably my favorite piece of music, as an album taken as a whole, is Bruce Springsteen's 'Greetings from Asbury Park.' I just think it's incredibly pure. It's a sound that sort of broke new ground, and I think it paved the way for a hundred people that sound very similar. Shane Black

Music, Think, People, Way, New, Sound

I'll say, what makes me happy about making movies is, every once in a while through movies we find a kind of honesty. There's an honesty in fiction that's as effective or even more powerful than the honesty of our lives. We can find something that's genuinely true, like a chemistry between people or a statement that speaks to an audience. Shane Black

Honesty, Happy, People, Powerful, Me

For years I was doing the excruciating weightlifting of writing scripts - but then I stayed thin and someone else got all the muscles. Shane Black

Writing, Doing, Someone, Years, Got

I think about the audience in the sense that I serve as my own audience. I have to please myself the way, if I saw the movie in a theater, I would be pleased. Do I think about catering to an audience? No. Shane Black

Myself, Think, My Own, Audience, Own

The worst of the action films are the ones where everything is one shout from beginning to finish. And there's no differentiation between beats, like small or big, or quiet or expansive. It's all just one loud shout. Shane Black

Beginning, Action, Small, Quiet, Finish

I've turned down lots and lots of work. Things that could have made me some money. Shane Black

Work, Money, Me, Down, Things, Some

I love the idea of a super villain that doesn't wear a cape, that doesn't wear a super suit. Shane Black

Love, Villain, Suit, Wear, Idea, Cape

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