I had originally planned to mention a variety of scenes from Woody Allen’s films that pertained to writing and literature in some way (there are so many to choose from), but ended up with just this one. It’s to do with that four-letter word that writers often do battle with. EDIT. Thank you, by the way, to all my former teachers who would take a seven-stanza poem of mine and say calmly, “I think it works, especially without the first three stanzas.” Takes a while but you learn how to deal with lines being ripped out, and then you see how much clearer the remainder can be. Unfortunately for the writer (played by John Turturro) in the scene below, he doesn’t seem to be very amenable to such changes. I realize it isn’t quite the same on the page as it is on the screen but here it is—Woody Allen as Mickey Sachs, an anxious, hypochondriacal television producer:
From Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
A writer, holding a script, walks out of the background studio, looking around.
MICKEY
Oh, Je--
WRITER
(interrupting, shouting)
Hey!
WRITER
(angrily, slapping his script)
Who changed my sketch about the PLO?
MICKEY
(gesturing)
I had to make some cuts. It's four lousy lines!
WRITER
The whole premise is ruined!
MICKEY
(gesturing, trying to calm the writer down)
Oh, you're crazy! It's not so
delicate. Everybody's married to
every line.
GAIL
(tapping Mickey's shoulder)
Mickey, I can--
WRITER
(interrupting, angrily gesturing)
I don't care! I don't want anyone
tampering with my goddamn work
without telling me!
MICKEY
(shrugging)
Okay.
WRITER
(pointing angrily)
You want 'em cut?! I'll cut 'em
myself!
