Quotes

[on working for Warner Bros. in the 1930s]: A writer was expected to arrive at the studio at nine o'clock in the morning and leave at five o'clock. He was expected to restrict his outside calls to a minimum. They were monitored. Let's face it, you didn't say anything you didn't want heard. A writer was not permitted on the set without the written permission of Jack Warner. This was a regulation. A writer was never invited to see his rushes. He was never invited to a preview. If he wanted to see his own pictures on the screen, he paid his money and went and saw them.

[on working for MGM]: I fell into the trap of going to Metro, because they offered me $5000 a week. Metro was a place where, if they wanted somebody, money was not an object. They paid more than any other studio for their stars, their directors, even for their writers. I shouldn't have done it. I knew better, because I have always said that Metro is the graveyard of writers. And so it proved to be.