"To this day, I get rewrite offers where they say: 'We feel this script needs work with character, dialogue, plot and tone,' and when you ask what's left, they say: 'Well, the typing is very good.'"
About this Quote
Hollywood notes are famous for sounding surgical while operating with a butter knife, and John Sayles nails that absurdity with a single deadpan punchline. The setup mimics the language of development executives: “character, dialogue, plot and tone” hits the four corners of screenwriting craft, delivered with the polite corporate vagueness that lets the speaker seem discerning without ever being accountable. Then Sayles asks the only honest follow-up - what, exactly, remains? The answer (“the typing is very good”) exposes the quiet cruelty of the process: a rewrite offer framed as opportunity that’s actually a demolition, with the writer invited to preserve only the document’s basic legibility.
The intent isn’t just to dunk on clueless notes; it’s to reveal the power dynamics embedded in them. “We feel” is the key tell - a committee voice that can’t be argued with because it doesn’t claim a single author. Sayles, an emblem of American indie filmmaking, speaks from the position of someone who’s spent decades navigating an industry that treats writers as interchangeable technicians unless they’re also the brand. The joke lands because it’s specific: anyone who’s been “developed” recognizes the moment when feedback becomes totalizing, when the note isn’t about fixing a script but replacing the writer’s sensibility.
Under the humor is a hard-earned credo: craft is not a set of swappable parts. When someone says your script needs new plot, new dialogue, new tone, they’re not asking for revision. They’re asking for surrender.
The intent isn’t just to dunk on clueless notes; it’s to reveal the power dynamics embedded in them. “We feel” is the key tell - a committee voice that can’t be argued with because it doesn’t claim a single author. Sayles, an emblem of American indie filmmaking, speaks from the position of someone who’s spent decades navigating an industry that treats writers as interchangeable technicians unless they’re also the brand. The joke lands because it’s specific: anyone who’s been “developed” recognizes the moment when feedback becomes totalizing, when the note isn’t about fixing a script but replacing the writer’s sensibility.
Under the humor is a hard-earned credo: craft is not a set of swappable parts. When someone says your script needs new plot, new dialogue, new tone, they’re not asking for revision. They’re asking for surrender.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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