“I made this commitment to myself that I was going to be a writer. I figured, ‘Well I’m going to be a writer for the rest of my life.’ I had a book I got just out of film school that was a writer’s guide and it was interesting because they listed the produced credits of a writer but they also listed all the unproduced scripts the writers had written. So you’d get this many produced credits (indicates a small number) and this many unproduced credits (indicates a larger number). So you see even top writers write way more scripts then ever get made, and these are people who get paid a million bucks a script. So I just thought realistically film is a capital intensive medium. It cost now $50—100 million to make a movie. It’s a little like architecture. Even someone like Frank Gehry will design 10 buildings and maybe one or two of them will get made. I think as a screenwriter you just have to assume that there’s going to be a 90% failure rate. As so I just thought, ‘Well, okay, I’m a screenwriter—I’m going to write one screenplay a year for the next 50 years so I’ll write 50 scripts. And if I assume a 90% failure maybe five of those scripts will get made and maybe two of them will be good movies.’ That’s just realistic. That’s not being overly pessimistic, that’s just what everyone else goes through. I wrote five scripts, then I wrote Little Miss Sunshine and then I wrote four more before I finally sold Little Miss Sunshine. It’s an endurance race.”
Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt
2007 talk at Cody’s Books (at the 38:00 mark of the FORA.tv video)
P.S. It’s worth nothing that it not only took Arndt ten screenplays before he sold one, it took that screenplay more than five years to get made and release into theaters. If you like these post I’d appreciate it if you’d “like” the Facebook page—Screenwriting from Iowa & Other Unlikely Places— I finally set up this week. Seeing faces helps inspire me to keep digging these kinds of quotes up.
Related posts:
How Much Do Screenwriters Make? (This is the most viewed post of everything I’ve written on this blog. Some have said what I wrote there was pessimistic, but in light of Arndt’s quote—and the other produced screenwriters I quoted—I do think it’s realistic.)
How to Be a Successful Screenwriter (Tip #41) “When you’re starting out, it’s hard to imagine how you’ll ever ‘succeed.’”—Michael Arndt
Frank Gehry on Creativity “Every artist confronts a series of issues that are constraints.”—Frank Gehry
Screenwriting from Iowa 
Commitment and temerity are key traits for any screenwriter worth their salt. Love your blog Scott, keep them coming! 🙂
Reblogged this on Writer. Editor. Culture vulture and commented:
Great post by Scott. Michael #Arndt #Screenwriter
Thanks, Ambertesia. I friend sent me that 2007 video of Arndt’s talk and I was surprised I’d never seen it. I’ve listened to it twice and think it’s just a solid hour of information. Glad to transcribe and pass the info on to others.