Screenwriting 101: Guillermo Arriaga

“I’ve written novels and screenplays, and with a screenplay you are writing something that’s going to be filmed, and you have to understand that. But, for me, both are forms of literature. I hate when people say, ‘When are you going to go back to literature?’ I say, ‘I never left.’ You never say that to a theater writer — I don’t know why drama for the cinema is lesser than drama for the theater. So I feel that I’m always doing literature. I put every effort in a screenplay to having beautiful language and a beauty of structure and a beauty in the construction of characters. To make a film requires the interest of a lot of people — actors, directors, producers, financiers — and the way to draw them in is to write a beautiful piece. So this is literature.”

— Guillermo Arriaga

FilmCraft | Screenwriting, P. 28

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