An angel has no memory.
Terry Southern
You can't do the end of the world in a conventionally dramatic way or Boy Meets Girl way.
Peter Beard is one of those people I've known a long time. We have an affinity. We share certain values.
I met Claxton on the set of The Cincinnati Kid.
After Strangelove I also started work on an adaptation of The Collector.
For a director and a producer to be named on the writing credits is practically unheard of.
It's often the case with directors that they don't like to share credit, which is the case of Stanley. He would prefer just A Film By Stanley Kubrick including music and everything.
The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.
David Burnett was the son of Martha Foley, who edited the Best American Short Stories series. She hired me to work with David and her to read stories for the anthology.
It's frustrating not to have more control over your material.
Sometimes we would be staked out in the middle of the river, several barges tied together. So we could party.
Someone wrote a piece about Henry Green in The Partisan Review that was so intriguing that I got one of his novels, Loving, I believe, which was the first that came to attention in the United States.
In the case of The Loved One, I was hired to collaborate on an updated version of the book.
When Kubrick decided to go the black comedy route with his movie, he thought of me to give it that flavor.
The Loved One has been the most underrated film I've worked on.
Writing on a contract for a major studio you get the very best.
I met The Beatles and Stones at the same time, because Michael Cooper was doing several of their album covers.
It was a good experience working with Roger Vadim and Jane Fonda.
When I finally made it to the set, I spent a lot of time doing damage control on The Magic Christian.
Grossing Out dealt with the western nations selling arms to the Third World and exploiting these countries.
I think the degree of alienation and despair is more universal.
In that sense, film is superior, but the difficulty is your lack of control as a writer.
I like to work at night.
