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25 Quotes By Shane Black

Famous As: American Filmmaker and Actor
Born On: 1961
Born In: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Age: 63 Years
Shane Black is an American actor, director, and filmmaker. He is best known for playing ‘Rick Hawkins’ in the 1987 science fiction film ‘Predator.’ He started as a screenwriter with ‘Warner Bros.,’ who offered him to write ‘Lethal Weapon’ for a deal of $2 50,000. Since then, he has written many successful films, such as ‘The Monster Squad,’ Lethal Weapon 2,’ ‘Last Action Hero,’ and ‘The Long Kiss Goodnight.’ As a director, he made his feature film debut in ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,’ in 2005. He also wrote and directed some brilliant films, including ‘Iron Man 3,’ ‘The Nice Guys,’ ‘The Predator.’ As an actor, he was seen in films, such as ‘RoboCop 3,’ ‘As Good As It Gets,’ and ‘Swing State.’ We have curated Shane Black’s quotes from his films, scripts, interviews, etc. Here are some of Shane Black quotes on audience, character, thinking, writing, starting out, kids, etc.
I wanted at one point to act, which is a weird thing for men to want to do. It's a very vain profession.

I wanted at one point to act, which is a weird thing for men to want to do. It's a very vain profession.

Shane Black
I think the most important thing is to, without belligerence, stand up for what want. Argue compellingly if someone tries to change your script.

I think the most important thing is to, without belligerence, stand up for what want. Argue compellingly if someone tries to change your script.

Shane Black
I think it's very admirable, in a superhero movie, to be able to take a few risks.

I think it's very admirable, in a superhero movie, to be able to take a few risks.

Shane Black
I think it's an obligation to make a movie full, so you have to see it twice to get all the moments.

I think it's an obligation to make a movie full, so you have to see it twice to get all the moments.

Shane Black
I think about the audience in the sense that I serve as my own audience. I have to please myself the way, if I saw the movie in a theater, I would be pleased. Do I think about catering to an audience? No.

I think about the audience in the sense that I serve as my own audience. I have to please myself the way, if I saw the movie in a theater, I would be pleased. Do I think about catering to an audience? No.

Shane Black
I owe a great deal of thanks to this man who will be gracious enough to say I've helped him with his career and comeback, but it's every bit the opposite.

I owe a great deal of thanks to this man who will be gracious enough to say I've helped him with his career and comeback, but it's every bit the opposite.

Shane Black
I love the idea of a super villain that doesn't wear a cape, that doesn't wear a super suit.

I love the idea of a super villain that doesn't wear a cape, that doesn't wear a super suit.

Shane Black
I have these guilty pleasures, these failed films that don't work at all, but I'll watch them if they're on. Like 'The Game'.

I have these guilty pleasures, these failed films that don't work at all, but I'll watch them if they're on. Like 'The Game'.

Shane Black
I have no power, and that's what's so humbling.

I have no power, and that's what's so humbling.

Shane Black
I hate 'The Professional.' It's one of the worst action/adventure movies ever made.

I hate 'The Professional.' It's one of the worst action/adventure movies ever made.

Shane Black
I don't mind women who want to act. That's fine. It's odd that men want to act, in that there's still a degree of vanity associated with it.

I don't mind women who want to act. That's fine. It's odd that men want to act, in that there's still a degree of vanity associated with it.

Shane Black
I always have humour in my action movies. I think characters that make jokes under fire are more real. It somehow helps put you in their shoes.

I always have humour in my action movies. I think characters that make jokes under fire are more real. It somehow helps put you in their shoes.

Shane Black
For years I was doing the excruciating weightlifting of writing scripts - but then I stayed thin and someone else got all the muscles.

For years I was doing the excruciating weightlifting of writing scripts - but then I stayed thin and someone else got all the muscles.

Shane Black
Any time anyone fires bullets in an action movie that don't hit the target it immediately undermines the movie.

Any time anyone fires bullets in an action movie that don't hit the target it immediately undermines the movie.

Shane Black
An action film can have too much action; picture an equaliser on a stereo, with all the knobs pegged at 10. It becomes a cacophony and is, ultimately, quite boring.

An action film can have too much action; picture an equaliser on a stereo, with all the knobs pegged at 10. It becomes a cacophony and is, ultimately, quite boring.

Shane Black

I felt that in a way, I hated the writing process so much. It's excruciating, as I'm sure you know, and so lonely being in the solitary prison of my office. A lot of brain-wracking. It just felt like it was so much hard work, and I would send it away. I felt as though I was doing all of this heavy lifting, this weightlifting, every day, all day. It was excruciating. And I stayed skinny, and someone else got all the muscles. I was eating all my vegetables, but then I wouldn't get dessert. To me, directing is the dessert.

Shane Black

I had my group of friends, and they stayed my group of friends, they were good about that. We all started to succeed at the same time, so that sort of took the curse off it. I didn't have a bunch of people scowling at me and being potentially jealous. I just had good friends who I was able to help, and they helped me. Yet it eventually came to feel debilitating.

Shane Black

I have a shoebox: for ideas, fragments, snatches of conversation I hear. I scrawl it down, throw the scraps in the box. Every time I start a new script I start picking through the pieces. Suddenly you get five pieces together and think: this is almost the first Act of a movie, if I flesh it out a bit.

Shane Black

I do think the challenge, in a way for me, is to write a narrative film and when you finish watching it you feel like it's a collage. You tell the narrative, you tell the story, but you feel like you've created this tapestry. But it also has a shape, a story. So I think there's a middle ground that I try to strike... away from where everyone else seems ready to go, which is, setup, payoff. You know, He's afraid of water, oh, and at the end he's swimming in water - oh, my God. I hate that stuff.

Shane Black

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.

Shane Black

I think a lot of people - by the time I came back with a script I liked, which took me many years, they'd forgotten who I was. Doors all the time are slamming, you meet friends that you've had for years, you'd go to the studio, and they'd say things to indicate clearly that they hadn't read it, or that they'd had their assistant sort of skim it. They wouldn't buy it. They wouldn't make it.

Shane Black

Going to UCLA, as far as I'm concerned, afforded me two things. One was the advantage of meeting friends and getting to know a group of guys I hung out with, was chummy with. All of us eventually had success with film. Making films, cutting our own little movies together, 3 in the morning going out and shooting stuff, finding gels that people had thrown away, making our own lights. It was like a frat house for film geeks, the Pad O' Guys. That's what being at UCLA afforded me.

Shane Black

Directing comes closer than anything I’ve found yet to providing me with a good reason to get up in the morning that goes beyond just getting some money. Because all the money does is buy the bed. Getting out of it is the problem.

Shane Black

I thought of Joel Silver. He never changes. He's sort of the unmoving, unchanging rock of Gibraltar in the otherwise-shifting world of Hollywood. He's the same as he always was. He looks the same, talks the same, has the same enthusiasm.

Shane Black

An action movie should, like any other, follow the narrative traditions of literature. That means there should be subtlety, a slow build and a gradual bringing together of all the separate threads of the plot. To see all of it coming together slowly is very rewarding for the audience.

Shane Black