Joe Gillis

"I'm writing a picture about a ball player. All-American type. Could be good."

"You don't know the first thing about pictures. You're not even a failed writer - you're a writer who was never meant to write."

"We're all pretty broke these days."

"The only way to survive in this town is to understand the game and play it better than everyone else."

"I had big dreams once. Now I'm just trying to survive until my next check."

"You can't blame a man for wanting to eat."

"Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul."

"I came here wanting to be a writer. Instead, I became a hack."

"Money makes you want things you never needed before."

"This town destroys people. It chews them up and spits them out."

"I used to believe in myself. That was my first mistake."

"Every writer in this town thinks he's ten times better than he is."

"The system doesn't care about you - it cares about what you can produce."

"I'm not a gigolo. I'm a writer down on his luck."

"She promised me a new life. I should have known better."

"In this town, you're only as good as your last picture."

"I thought I was different. I thought I had integrity. I was wrong."

"Love in Hollywood is just another transaction."

"Time moves differently here. Days feel like years when you're struggling."

"You can sell anything in this town if you package it right."

"I was a decent writer once. Before I became desperate."

"The price of dreams is usually paid in humiliation."

"Nobody cares about you until you're useful to them."

"I came to Hollywood to change the world. The world changed me instead."

"Writing for pictures is like painting by numbers - you follow the formula or you starve."

"She was beautiful in that dangerous way that destroys men."

"Success here isn't about talent. It's about knowing the right people and making the right deals."

"I lost my self-respect somewhere around my third script rewrite."

"They don't make stars anymore - they manufacture them."

"I've been living off her kindness, and it's slowly killing me."