Quotes by Robert Towne

About Robert Towne:

Robert Towne is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. His most notable work was his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest movie screenplays ever written. He also wrote its sequel The Two Jakes in 1990, and wrote the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973), and Shampoo (1975), as well as the first two Mission Impossible films (1996, 2000).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Every search for a hero must begin with something which every hero requires - a villain.

Robert Towne

Finally, Colin Farrell showed up on my doorstep, only he wasn't Colin Farrell - he was just this Irish kid who had read the script and wanted to do it.

Robert Towne

I'm excited and encouraged to see people getting involved with their public lands and forests. We really need the public's help to repair these heavily used recreation sites.

Robert Towne

It made me alive to the fact that the most important thing sometimes is what isn't said - to prepare for moments of revelation that can be read entirely on actors' faces without dialogue.

Robert Towne

It was not possible to film in California, because all the areas are heavily built up now. Coming to Cape Town is an invitation to step into the past and recreate Los Angeles of the 1930s.

Robert Towne

Now they're attracted to one another, but repelled by their ethnic origins, so that there was something to overcome. They had to overcome their own prejudices, which had been imposed by the culture - their own shame at being Mexican and Italian.

Robert Towne

One of the reasons for going back into the past is that it's almost the only place that there's any drama.

Robert Towne

You're torn between wanting to fill in all the spaces and knowing that's really going to screw up the screenplay. And yet, how are you going to communicate it to people who really don't understand the process?

Robert Towne

You're dumber than you think I think you are.

Robert Towne

She's my daughter. She's my sister.

Robert Towne

If you have a good ear for dialogue, you just can't help thinking about the way people talk. You're drawn to it. And the obsessive interest in it forces you to develop it. You almost can't help yourself.

Robert Towne

I think that those are the things that you can uniquely do with film that are difficult to do anywhere else: they can bring a picture to life, give it a natural and historical context and make you feel that everything else is suddenly credible.

Robert Towne

But time has caught up with it and I think vindicated it. Shampoo, too: very dark, very ambitious movie.

Robert Towne

But, uh, censorship at that time said that you just absolutely couldn't do anything involving children and so we had to go from there. I don't remember what I changed it to. Duvall is just excellent in it.

Robert Towne

And I think one way or another it's evident to those who work with me that as a writer, a director, a friend, as somebody's there that's very anxious to get the movie made.

Robert Towne

Author Bio

  • NameRobert Towne
  • DescriptionAmerican screenwriter, producer, director and actor
  • AliasesRobert Bertram Schwartz
  • BornNovember 23, 1934
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionScreenwriter; Film Director; Actor
  • AwardsAcademy Award For Best Writing (Original Screenplay)