Gene Fowler - biography

“I believe Mrs.  Thatcher’s emphasis on enterprise was right.”

“What is success?  It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.”

“It is easier to believe than to doubt.”

“Never thank anybody for anything, except a drink of water in the desert - and then make it brief.”

“Everyone needs a warm personal enemy or two to keep him free from rust in the movable parts of his mind.”

“Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait.”

“For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.”

“Love and memory last and will so endure till the game is called because of darkness.”

“Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves.”

“He has a profound respect for old age.  Especially when it’s bottled.”

“I will be brief.  Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world’s shortest speech.  He said I will be so brief I have already finished, and he sat down.”

“If they haven’t heard it before it’s original.”

“Perhaps no mightier conflict of mind occurs ever again in a lifetime than that first decision to unseat one’s own tooth.”

“Psychoanalysts seem to be long on information and short on application.”

“Sometimes I think my writing sounds like I walked out of the room and left the typewriter running.”

“The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.”

“They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped.  If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.”

“Whatever one believes to be true either is true or becomes true in one’s mind.”

“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

Gene Fowler contributed to the screenplay for the following films:
Back Street (1932)
State’s Attorney (1932)
Union Depot (1932)
What Price Hollywood? (1932)
L’Amour guidé (1933)
The Way to Love (1933)
Twentieth Century (1934)
Professional Soldier (1935)
The Call of the Wild (1935)
A Message to Garcia (1936)
Love Under Fire (1937)
Nancy Steele Is Missing! (1937)
The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)
Jesse James (1939)
Some Like It Hot (1939)
The Earl of Chicago (1940)
Billy the Kid (1941)
Beau James (1957)