Of The Things Men Give Each Other

The Writer Is A Definite Human Phenomenon. He Is Almost A Type - As Pugilists Are A Type. He May Be A Bad Writer - An Insipid One Or A Clumsy One - But There Is A Bug In Him That Keeps Spinning Yarns; And That Bulges His Brow A Bit, Narrows His Jaws, Weakens His Eyes And Gives Him Girl Children Instead Of Boys. Nobody But A Writer Can Write. People Who Hang Around Writers For Years - As Producers Did - Who Are Much Smarter And Have Much Better Taste, Never Learn To Write.

Like The Actor, Authority Has Faith In Its False Whiskers. But Its Deepest Faith Is In The Human Illusion. People Will Hang On To Illusion As Eagerly As Life Itself.

The Factors That Laid Low So Whooping And Puissant An Empire As The Old Hollywood Are Many. I Can Think Of A Score, Including The Barbarian Hordes Of Television. But There Is One That Stands Out For Me In The Post-mortem.... The Factor Had To Do With The Basis Of Movie-making: 'who Shall Be In Charge Of Telling The Story.'

They're A Symbol Of The Whole Town, Pretending To Fight, Love, Weep And Laugh All The Time - And They're Phonies, All Of Them. And I Head The List...their Phony Hearts Were Dripping With The Milk Of Human Kindness.

The Movies Are An Eruption Of Trash That Has Lamed The American Mind And Retarded Americans From Becoming Cultured People.