Terry Southern
Terry Southern
Terry Southernwas an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. Part of the Paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to Beat writers in Greenwich Village, Southern was also at the center of Swinging London in the 1960s and helped to change the style and substance of American films in the 1970s. In the 1980s he wrote for Saturday Night Live and lectured on screenwriting at several universities in New York...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth1 May 1924
CityAlvarado, TX
CountryUnited States of America
Terry Southern quotes about
The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.
I don't know why, but I always feel a kind of necessity to write things that are beyond acceptance, that are too offensive or something. For people to read them and say, Ha-ha-ha, very funny. No, we can't print that.
Sometimes we would be staked out in the middle of the river, several barges tied together. So we could party.
I met The Beatles and Stones at the same time, because Michael Cooper was doing several of their album covers.
I met Claxton on the set of The Cincinnati Kid.
For a director and a producer to be named on the writing credits is practically unheard of.
After Strangelove I also started work on an adaptation of The Collector.
Peter Beard is one of those people I've known a long time. We have an affinity. We share certain values.
When Kubrick decided to go the black comedy route with his movie, he thought of me to give it that flavor.
Writing on a contract for a major studio you get the very best.
David Burnett was the son of Martha Foley, who edited the Best American Short Stories series. She hired me to work with David and her to read stories for the anthology.
I learned not to care ... and to write for an imaginary reader whose tastes were similar to my own.
When I finally made it to the set, I spent a lot of time doing damage control on The Magic Christian.
It's often the case with directors that they don't like to share credit, which is the case of Stanley. He would prefer just A Film By Stanley Kubrick including music and everything.