Joe Gillis

"In this business, you're either predator or prey. I was never predatory enough."

"The illusion is all they're selling. The dream is just the bait."

"I should have taken a job pumping gas back in Dayton."

"Every day you stay in this town, you become less of what you were."

"She wanted to own me. I was too weak to resist."

"Hollywood is full of beautiful lies and ugly truths."

"I compromised once, then again, then a thousand times. Now I don't know who I am anymore."

"The script pages are blank, but my bills are very real."

"You can't love someone who sees you as an investment."

"I'm hanging on by my fingernails, and they're breaking off one by one."

"She had this power over me that I couldn't explain or escape."

"The real failure isn't in not making it - it's in staying when you know you're done."

"I traded my principles for a swimming pool. Bad deal."

"Every writer in this town is one rejection away from desperation."

"I used to mock people like me. Now I am me."

"The studio doesn't care if you're a genius - they care if you're on time and under budget."

"She said she believed in me. I should have asked what she believed I was capable of."

"Talent is common in this place. Desperation is what makes you special."

"I'm not a bad man. I'm just a man in bad circumstances who made bad choices."

"The dream dies slowly, not all at once. That's the cruelest part."

"You learn patience in this town - the patience to wait for rejection."

"I thought money would make me happy. It just made me available."

"Hollywood is the greatest con game ever invented, and we're all the marks."

"She was like a beautiful spider, and I walked right into her web."

"I'm a coward. I admit it. Cowardice is very common in this town."

"The pictures they make today are terrible. Tomorrow they'll be considered classics."

"I had talent once. Then I had bills. Then I had neither."

"You sell your soul in pieces here. It's less noticeable that way."

"Every man in Hollywood is running from something. Most of us are running toward nothing."

"I thought I was above this. Turns out I was just more naive than most."