Chinatown Quotes

This is a good moment to comment on the cottage industry that has sprung up around "How To" ... Screenwriting manuals. I think of this because Towne`s script (Chinatown) is often cited as a great template (which it is) but, invariably, with no understanding or acknowledgment of the role film editing has in shaping a finished work. So any discussion that omits this issue shows a palpable lack of experience in the actual making of films on the part of the scriptwriting teacher/author.

Every director implored me, "Jack, can`t you talk a little bit faster?" It was like a hot button for me and I would become hateful. So when Roman started to say it, I began and he said, "Jack, this movie is 100-and-something pages long. To have a movie that is screen able, you`ll have to talk a little faster". (Roman Polanski directed him in Chinatown (1974)).

I`m astounded by people who want to `know` the universe when it`s hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.

The trouble with that movie is that you had to see Chinatown the day before you saw The Two Jakes.

Well you see, movies are our generation`s folklore. It`s our pop culture, our reference point. I don`t want it to sound arrogant but I felt that my passion and love for the movies gave me enough guidance as to how I would present a character by mixing elements of different actresses and performances that inspired me. It`s actresses like Sigourney Weaver who was so strong and amazing in Alien and at the same time so feminine and fragile in something like The Year Of Living Dangerously. It`s Faye Dunaway, who is so completely a woman in her films. Her eyes are so...she has very sorrowful eyes. The things you learn from her face in Chinatown!

We interviewed almost 3,000 people to hear from them what they thought the main concerns were and there were really three main concerns. One was sanitation and a lack of jobs in Chinatown; the other was lack of housing in Chinatown, and in fact prices have gone up. People could no longer live here. And it was a quality of life issue. People felt the streets were dirty, there were not enough parks.