I set out to write a screenplay but, since my EARLY 20s, had dreamed of WRITING a NOVEL.

If you're WRITING a NOVEL, you can afford to see where the spirit takes you, but in TERMS of structure and ENGINEERING with a screenplay, you have to be quite pragmatic; otherwise, it will run AWAY from you.

I want to work with Will FERRELL. I want to do, like, an action-comedy with him. How do I GET the project for that? It's killing me. I've got all these great IDEAS, and the hardest THING is getting the MATERIAL, the screenplay, you know.

My mother always helped me because she was kind of a research FANATIC. When she WOULD WRITE a screenplay, there would be so much research all over the walls. And so when I STARTED working as an ACTRESS, I would do the same thing. She instilled in me a love of taking everything very seriously. It didn't matter what it was.

Usually if you read a screenplay, no MATTER who's WRITING it, the bad GUY is ALWAYS written as a one-dimensional bad guy.

The brain NEEDS to have a story; it needs to have a LOGICAL screenplay TELLING where we're coming from and what we're GOING to.

A novel, of course, is a fully self-contained work of art. You PICK it up off the shelf, open it, and there it is - a WHOLE UNIVERSE waiting for you to enter. A screenplay is just a blueprint for making a movie. Until the movie is actually filmed, the script really MEANS NOTHING.

I FOUND the STRUCTURE of writing a screenplay harder than the structure of writing an ESSAY. But it was definitely challenging to force myself to SIT and write. I'm not used to having to force myself to work.

'Pitch PERFECT' was my FIRST screenplay, so it was LIKE my LITTLE BABY.

When I write a novel, I want it to be completely different from a screenplay. I'm very CONSCIOUS of the DIFFERENCE, and I want novels to WORK purely as novels. Otherwise I don't SEE how they'll survive - why don't we just all go to the movies or WATCH television.

The SIMPLE IDIOT's ADVICE I give to screenwriters who SAY they want to sell a screenplay is, 'Write good.'

The ELEGANCE of a REALLY GOOD screenplay, I ADMIRE it. I can't do it.

I couldn't READ a screenplay WITHOUT puking.