Charlie Kaufman

“Everything I've written is personal - it's the only way I know how to write.”

“We have the script, we have the actors, and we're trying to figure out what this is, and you don't know what it is. You have to be open to what it's going to become rather than have this thing that you're trying to get to, which is boring.”

“I think if I've worked anything through with screenwriting it's that I'm not going to be able to work anything through.”

“Before you start production, you have characters you have created without actors in mind, then all of a sudden you've got actors. They bring an enormous amount in creating these characters, and creating the dynamics between the characters that you've written.”

“You and I share the same DNA.Is there anything more lonely than that?”

“I'm in my mind a lot. I live there.”

“I want to create situations that give people something to think about.”

“As a kid, I had a background in theater.”

“I have a personality that tends to be somewhat compulsive, and I do tend to think in a circular way. I dwell on the same things over and over and I try to figure out different ways of looking at the same issue.”

“I'm not a concept. Too many guys think I'm a concept or I complete them or I'm going to 'make them alive'…but I'm just a fucked up girl who's looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours.”

“So when I write characters and situations and relationships, I try to sort of utilize what I know about the world, limited as it is, and what I hear from my friends and see with my relatives.”

“I actually think I'm probably more interested in structure than most people who write screenplays, because I think about it.”

“I tend to not only read reviews, but also every little stupid thing online. It's a very bad idea, and there's a lot of angry people in the world. And it's weird to absorb all that weirdness.”

“You are what you love. Not what loves you.”

“I think you just assume that your memory is just sort of a video playback of your experience, but it's nothing like that at all. It's a complete refabrication of an event and a lot of it is made up, because you're filling in spaces.”

“I like titles that are a little difficult, because it's kind of counterintuitive.”

“I've kind of come to the conclusion that what passes for realism in movies has nothing to do with reality and that my stuff is more realistic than that.”

“I really don't have any solutions and I don't like movies that do.”

“I do have some theatrical background. I've written plays and seen plays and read plays. But I also read novels. One thing I don't read is screenplays.”

“CLEMENTINE: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.JOEL: I know.CLEMENTINE: What do we do?JOEL: Enjoy it.”