If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I never 'went Hollywood.' Perhaps some of my behavior was detrimental to my career, but I couldn't go the route of Hollywood parties.
My attitude about Hollywood is that I wouldn't walk across the street to pull one of those executives out of the snow if he was bleeding to death. Not unless I was paid for it. None of them ever did me any favors.
I actually think I have an audience member's sensibility about going to the movies.
Just as good books give me the joys of being alive, bad novels depress me, and as I notice this sentiment coming from the pages, I stop. I also do not hesitate to walk out of a movie house if the film is bad.
I was going to be the best failed novelist in Paris. That was certainly not the worst thing in the world that one could be.
I've sold 11 of my books to Hollywood. There are all kinds of my books on shelves in Hollywood because the scripts didn't capture the characters.
Books were king, but now movies are king, and books are sort of ignored. So now there's no sense of a welcoming community where you live.
To be quite honest, I've been very blessed when I've worked with Hollywood. The studios that have purchased my work to be adapted to film have really liked the work and wanted to stay as close as they could to what the book was.
If I messed up at the Oscars, I wouldn't be invited back.
The things I could have done had Hollywood been more open? I don't dwell on coulda-woulda-shoulda. Because, hey, I've had a great career.