Joe Eszterhas

“Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.”

“I believe in the American Dream, because I've lived it.”

“Cancer saved my life. It sounds like a paradox, but it's true.”

“A screenplay is a story told in pictures.”

“What is a movie? It's a smoke screen. It's an illusion.”

“Showgirls was a classic example of hitting the zeitgeist on the nose and being punished for it.”

“You have to have a thick skin to be in this business.”

“The most important thing a writer can do is to write, to sit down and get the words on the page.”

“I don't think that you can be a screenwriter and not be a story-teller.”

“The thing that I have learned is that you can't be a writer and be afraid of what people are going to say about you.”

“I have been an atheist my whole life, but now I believe in God.”

“My advice to young writers is: Read. Read everything.”

“Writing is a very lonely profession.”

“I came to this country as a refugee with my parents. We had nothing.”