Sunset Boulevard

"Work in this town is like quicksand - the more you struggle, the deeper you sink."

"She loved the idea of me more than she loved me. That's how it always is."

"I should have left when I still had my dignity. Should have means I didn't."

"The best lie is the one you tell yourself over and over until you believe it."

"I'm a footnote in someone else's story. That's all any of us are here."

"Hollywood doesn't break you suddenly. It grinds you down grain by grain until nothing remains."

"They say keep swimming or you'll sink. I've been swimming for so long, I've forgotten how to walk."

"I came here with hope. I'm leaving with nothing but an understanding of my own weakness."

"The truth is, I was never good enough. Not for her, not for the pictures, not for myself."

"She offered me salvation. What she offered was a beautiful prison."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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