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I just wanted to make sure that what I write is what appears on screen, to not have some idiot change it on its way to the screen.

Joe Eszterhas

Change

Every time I flicked channels, there I was, talking. I was talking too much and writing too little. So Naomi and I went to Hawaii. The phone was cut off and we lost touch. This gave me the chance to have a good think about my life.

Fact is we went on to do other things. But we still wanted to do our success like rock'n'roll stars.

From a writing point of view, you now have teams of screenwriters working with a director. What's lost in the process is the power of that one heart, brain, gut and soul that makes something an original piece of writing.

From what I've been able to determine, many of our big stars are addicted to tobacco. They want to smoke in movies for the same reason I smoked as I wrote, which is that they think their performance is going to be better.

I had read too many memoirs that were written after the writer or the director was past his or her prime.

Joe Eszterhas

Past

Writer

I have always been fascinated by the corruption of power.

Joe Eszterhas

Power

Corruption

I have my own religious bond with the God in my own head.

Joe Eszterhas

God

Religious

I have only one loyalty - to my writing. I never wanted to be the head of a studio or a producer.

Joe Eszterhas

Loyalty

Writing

Cigarettes are not a part of human behaviour, they are a habit.

Joe Eszterhas

Habit

And the inner dynamics of Hollywood are like politics. Say you give a script to a group of executives - they all sit around, afraid to voice an opinion, saying nothing, waiting to know what the consensus is. Just like focus groups, opinion polls or a cabinet.

I was a militant smoker, and in my case, I think I particularly used smoking because what I felt was a kind of politically correct big brother assault on smoking.

Joe Eszterhas

Brother

Smoking

The terrible, diabolic thing with this disease is that you are always looking behind your shoulder every couple months with the most recent checkup to see whether there is any sign of it, and I thank God to say at this point there is not.

The studios have been taken over by marketing people and accountants.

Joe Eszterhas

People

Marketing

That's sort of what I felt... I miss drinking, I thought bars were truly holy places.

Joe Eszterhas

Thought

Drinking