Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturgeswas an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Great McGinty, his first of three nominations in the category...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth29 August 1898
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
interest life situations
If I can't find real situations that interest me in real life, then I'll go and write them in play form.
architecture defining form theory worked
I worked out a rather deep-dish theory defining the theater as a form of architecture rather than a form of literature.
respect sentiment
I never write down to my audiences. I respect honest sentiment and honest pratfalls.
automobile compared exploded movies
I compared pooh-poohers of the movies to the myopics who used to holler, 'Get a horse!' when an early automobile exploded by.
I always was and always will be optimistic.
directing wrote
Directing was easy for me because I was a writer director and did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay.
art beaten depart depends disagree healthy invention nature startle teller track
By the very nature of his art, which depends on invention and innovation, a story teller must depart from the beaten track and, having done so, occasionally startle and disagree with some of his associates. Healthy disagreement we must have.
bourbon herself remarkably school southern teaching third threw whiskey
For a southern belle, my grandmother was remarkably modern. She threw my grandfather out, for one thing - some kind of argument about bourbon whiskey - shortly after the birth of their third child, and then went back to school to get herself a teaching certificate.
gives hook next onto point responds spoken swing word
The hook is a word or an idea spoken by one character which gives the next character something to hook onto when he responds or, like a trapeze artist, gives him something to swing from on his way to another point of view.
educational world film
Film is the greatest educational medium the world has ever known.
birthday theatre next
You can't go around the theatres handing out cards saying, 'It isn't my fault'. You go onto the next one.
should-have pickles should
I should have had the pickle.
couple fun favors
After I saw a couple of pictures put out by my fellow comedy-directors, which seemed to have abandoned the fun in favor of the message, I wrote Sullivan's Travels to satisfy an urge to tell them that they were getting a little too deep-dish, to leave the preaching to the preachers.
life praying sin
Now I've laid me down to die I pray my neighbors not to pry Too deeply into sins that I Not only cannot here deny But much enjoyed as life flew by.