Screenwriting 101: Marshal Herskovitz

“If I have a criticism of many screenwriters, it’s that they are too wedded to the words. When I say ‘the words,’ I mean the words the characters speak. [Speaking is] is the last thing that people do. They have the thought, they have the fear, they have another thought, they want to run, and finally, they speak. There has to be a whole dynamic that goes on before a person speaks.”

 — Marshall Herskovitz (The Last Samurai, “thirtysomething”)