A recent Boston Globe interview by Ty Burr with film writer
Charlie Kaufman has one of the more interesting opening sentences I’ve ever
encountered: “Interviewing Charlie Kaufman is like sprinkling salt on a slug.”
(Apparently Kaufman hates being interviewed, but he was promoting his film,
Synecdoche, New York, which he directed as well as wrote. His answer regarding
the difference between being a writer and being a director also explains why I
never went into directing:
“I like writing but it's very lonely sometimes, and it requires a lot of discipline. It's the opposite of pragmatic, and directing is enormously pragmatic. It's also very structured. I mean, [as a director] every moment I know exactly where I'm supposed to be, and if I forget there's someone there to tell me. And it's managerial, so I have to figure out how to talk to people on an individual basis. It's not like there's one way to talk to actors; they're all different. I also have to let go of my natural personality traits, which are sulking and moodiness, and kind of become an adult, because that's required.”
He also mentions that he couldn’t get a job for 11 years after graduating and that for a couple of years people in the business read and admired “Being John Malkovich” but told him it could never be made.