When you hire that first person, then you're a boss. You've got performance reviews. You've got complaints about not making enough money. You've got people who are just going to sell your story to the tabloids.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The writer in movies is about as low as you can get and you really are a hired hand. You are paid a lot of money to be treated like dirt.
You're in the business - when you're a writer, producer, director - to get ratings.
Publishers were ever eager for authors to do their own publicity because nobody else was willing to do it for nothing. But then it became clear that if you want somebody to champion the story, there's nobody better than the person who made it all up.
I was once hired to write a column for 'The Guardian' and then got fired before I'd submitted my first one. That was unusual. Most newspapers wait until I've written at least one piece for them before firing me.
The first job of a storyteller is to make the reader feel the story, to get the reader to live in the skin of the character.
At this point, I don't get hired a lot because people don't think I could finance a movie.
I've been accused of being unambitious, but what I do takes up every minute. I'm executive producer, I'm a writer and the host.
Writers want publicity all the time, and they are always nagging their agents and publishers to give them more publicity, but, when you get it, it's kind of soul-destroying.
Let me tell you about being executive producer. It is not a job, it's a title. Don't go around asking executive producers what they do because they don't do anything, alright?
I don't think anybody submits their first story and sells right away.