It seems like the studios are either making giant blockbusters or really super-small indies. And the mid-level films I grew up on like 'Back to the Future' and all those John Hughes movies the studios aren't doing. It's hard to get them on their feet.

I came to live in Shepperton in 1960. I thought: the future isn't in the metropolitan areas of London. I want to go out to the new suburbs near the film studios. This was the England I wanted to write about because this was the new world that was emerging.

Working with David Cronenberg or Darren Aronofsky or even Steven Soderbergh isn't really like a typical Hollywood movie. These are true artists and have a certain amount of freedom when they work and they're more like independent filmmakers making their way through big studios.

It's very difficult to break into motion pictures but it's oddly easier for directors today because of independent films and cable who have inherited for the most part those films of substance that the studios are reluctant to finance.

The studios don't finance anymore they get outside funds.

Studios because they are investing a great deal of money in movies they want a guarantee that when they hire somebody that person can deliver for them. Everything is fear based so they pigeonhole people. But I've written everything from Westerns to sci-fi to dramedy I've done it all.

I was working at the store on the Sony studios in Culver City. And I was literally holding a shirt when they came in and told me I'd got the part! It just shows dreams do come true.

The old studios that mass-produced dreams are gone with the wind just like the old downtown theaters that were the temples of the dreams.

It's up to the courage of the filmmakers to make art in cinema not just business. John was rejected by studios he borrowed money and did movies with his own money. You're either courageous or not. You have to find a way.

In France we don't yet have the craft that American TV does or big studios like Paramount. It was so cool going through those famous gates when you have your own little pass and picture on it. Woo hoo I'm going to work!

I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today.

The business side of film has goofed up so many things but even that's changing. It happened to the music industry and now it's happening to the film studios. It's crazy what's going on. But artists should have control of their work especially if as I always say you never turn down a good idea and never take a bad idea.

I mean there are some amazing storytelling being done on the small screen right now. That's what so cool about being in television right now. Studios networks are starting to throw more resources better writers more production values... and to be part of that is awesome.

The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before and the pleasure you get from writing - rare but profound - remains at the true heart of the enterprise. On their best days writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers all alone in their studios with no one watching.