Adaptation

Charlie Kaufman writes the way he lives... With Great Difficulty. His Twin Brother Donald Lives the way he writes... with foolish abandon. Susan writes about life... But can't live it. John's life is a book... Waiting to be adapted. One story... Four Lives... A million ways it can end.

"I'm putting in a chase sequence. So the killer flees on horseback with the girl, the cop's after them on a motorcycle and it's like a battle between motors and horses, like technology vs. horse."
"And they're still all one person, right? ... The only idea more overused than serial killers is multiple personality. On top of that, you explore the notion that cop and criminal are really two aspects of the same person. See every cop movie ever made for other examples of this."
"Mom called it 'psychologically taut'."

  -- Donald and Charlie Kaufman
 

"I'm probably the smartest person I know."

  -- John Laroche
 

"I suppose I do have one unembarrassed passion. I want to know how it feels to care about something passionately."

  -- Susan Orlean
 

"I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases or characters learning profound life lessons or growing or coming to like each other or overcome obstacles to succeed in the end. The book isn't like that, and life isn't like that, it just isn't."

  -- Charlie Kaufman
 

"Listen, I need a cool way to kill people. Don't worry, for my script."
"I don't know that kind of stuff."
"Oh, come on, man, please? You're the genius."
"Here you go. The killer's a literature professor. He cuts off little chunks from his victims' bodies until they die. He calls himself 'the deconstructionist'."

  -- Donald and Charlie Kaufman

 

"It's over. Everything, I did everything wrong. I want my life back. I want it back before everything got fucked up. I want to be a baby again. I want to be new. I want to be new!"

  -- Susan Orlean
 

"Today is the first day of the rest of my life."

  -- Charlie Kaufman"

"You know why I like plants?"
"Nuh uh."
"Because they're so mutable. Adaptation is a profound process. Means you figure out how to thrive in the world."
"Yeah but it's easier for plants. I mean they have no memory. They just move on to whatever's next. With a person though, adapting almost shameful. It's like running away."

  -- John Laroche and Susan Orlean
 

"I'll tell you a secret. The last act makes the film. Wow them in the end, and you've got a hit. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you've got a hit. Find an ending, but don't cheat, and don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina. Your characters must change, and the change must come from them. Do that, and you'll be fine."

  --Robert McKee