- [on writing Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985): I wrote the first draft of "Rambo". And I just did it, I was living on dog food at the time and I, you know, I needed a gig and I wanted to finish a spec script I was writing. And you know, they called, Stallone called me in and they had this idea about what they should do in the sequel to "First Blood" and I said, "Well, how about if maybe he searches for POWs in Southeast Asia and back in Vietnam? He said "Great, let's do it.
- [on David Lean advising him to take up screenwriting and directing: When we were talking during "Ryan's Daughter", I asked if he thought I ought to go to film school. He said no, I could learn all that in six months. I asked what I ought to do and he said, "Read!", Then he gave me Boswell's "Life of Johnson" and Alan Moorehead's "The Blue Nile" and "The White Nile". Amazing.
- High Noon (1952), Gary Cooper, how many people have ever been faced with some kind of terrible decision, and you know, they think of Gary Cooper, and that kind of puts starch in their backs, which is not to say, which is that to overvalue movies, I mean they're just movies, and you have to make decisions on your own, but still there's something about it, you can think back and say "Yeah, I was Gary Cooper", or "God, I should've been Gary Cooper".
- I think people want what I always wanted, which was something, not just escape, because escape only goes so far you have to face reality, but there's something that illuminates reality in some way.
- I knew about the 54th, I'd been a Civil War freak myself ever since I got some toy soldiers when I was a kid. Lincoln Kirstein's interest was deeper. It related to his whole philosophy about surrendering yourself to something bigger, some larger cause. He'd always wanted to make a movie about the 54th.
- I moved into Room 421 at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York, opposite the Players Club, and wrote Glory (1989) in four weeks, on spec. I never thought I could interest anybody in it. A Civil War epic, about black people? But I'd got really attached to the story. I had to kill everybody off and I'd end up in tears when I got through writing.
- It's no secret. You work really really hard. I wrote my first script six times from scratch each time. If you want to be a writer, it's hard work, learning your craft. You have to be realistic and you must be your own hardest critic. In the end, there are no substitutes for being persistent or for hard work.
- Once production starts, the last person anybody wants around is the writer.
- There's a dark side to Val Kilmer that I don't feel comfortable talking about.
- We were deep in conversation about Doc Holiday and this stand-in brought over a very colorful locust and said, "Look what I found!" I looked up and said, "Hey, that's pretty good", and Val (Kilmer), without a word, grabbed the locust and ate it, and it was big. I asked Val to build up this character's confidence before a scene, the actor was sweating, he needed it, and Val came through.
- Maybe there's a Jekyll-and-Hyde thing going on with him (Val Kilmer) inside, maybe he's like those children who test the limits and if parents don't stand up to them, they just become monsters.
- "I was never convinced the books and movies (about Wyatt Earp) told what really happened at the O.K. Corral. The real truth is far, far, far more romantic than fiction. It's almost biblical what happened. I think in this case the truth happens to be better drama".
- [on approaching Kevin Costner for the lead role in Tombstone: "He (Kevin Costner) was the first person I thought of. After he read the script, he called and respectfully declined. He said he had a miniseries that he was developing for pay-per-view on the whole life of Earp and we left it at that".
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