Robert Towne Quotes

Good dialogue illuminates what people are not saying

In dramatic writing, the very essence is character change. The character at the end is not the same as he was at the beginning. He's changed-psychologically, maybe even physically.

The straight roads are the roads of progress, the crooked roads are thee roads of genius.

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

Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring L.A. to the water.

I'm not in business to be loved, but I am in business.

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.

Larry Grobel senses there are no answers in life, only questions. Good ones.

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.

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

I'm not supposed to be the one that's caught with his pants down.

If you can find meaning in the type of running you need todo to stay on this team, chances are you can find meaning in another absurd pastime: Life.

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.

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

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

Forget it, Jake -- it's Chinatown.