96 Quotes by Ben Hecht

Three years ago, the white hope of the theatre. Today, a mug. That’s New York for you. Puts you on a Christmas tree, and then – the alley.

Bad writing is not easier than good writing. It’s just as hard to make a toilet seat as it is a castle window. Only the view is different.

I have written a raucous valentine to a poet’s dream and agony.

I’ll tell you a secret. We live in a mad and inspiring world.

In the court of the movie Owner, none criticized, none doubted. And none dared speak of art. In the Owner’s mind art was a synonym for bankruptcy. The movie Owners are the only troupe in the history of entertainment that has never been seduced by the adventure of the entertainment world.

I’m a Hollywood writer, so I put on my sports jacket and take off my brain.

Innocent people can get into terrible jams, too. One false move and you’re in over your head.

Out of the seventy movies I’ve written some ten of them were not entirely waste product.

Television excites me because it seems to be the last stamping ground of poetry, the last place where I hear women’s hair rhapsodically described, women’s faces acclaimed in odelike language.