“I didn't have a motive. I didn't to it. You did. What are you writing?""Motive - Don't know.""What do you mean Don't know? I tell you I hadn't got one. Put None.""You must have one. If you kill people without one, you're mad.”

“I don't know what to do, and if I did know what to do I wouldn't tell you, because if I had to tell you today then I'd have to tell you tomorrow, and when I'm gone you'd have to get somebody else to tell you.”

“If you do not like people, you will not take the time to get to know them, and if you don't get to know them, you will have no idea what scares them, what inspires them, what motivates them.”

“What are you doing?" Damen's breathwas shaky."What am I doing? You are not veryobservant.""You're not yourself," said Damen. "Andeven if you were, you don't do anythingwithout a dozen motives."Laurent went very still, the soft wordshalf bitter. "Don't I? I must wantsomething.”

“Here's what I didn't know when I was starting out that I now know…I thought when you were starting out it was really hard to write because you hadn't broken in yet, you hadn't really hit your stride yet. What I found out paradoxically is that the next script you write doesn't get easier because you wrote one before…each one gets harder by a factor of 10.”

“See that?" Paul said. "Ten goddamn seconds.""I don't get it.""You didn't even have to hear the whole song, just a few lines, and you got the chills and that swirly, happy-sad feeling in your gut, didn't you?" ... "That's the difference between the real stuff and the crap. I know which one you are and you know which one I am.”