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Once I started writing.
Other friends of mine
actually started pointing out that there was a
symmetry to out dialog,
to some degree or another.
But, the funny thing about
Paddy Chayefsky was
It was almost via Paddy Chayefsky
that I actually realised
I was a pretty good writer
and I might want to consider
exploring this a little bit.
Because how I actually discovered
writing dialog is,
I used to be in acting classes.
So part of the thing you do
in acting classes is you
drum up scenes to do.
And I always wanted to do
scenes from movies.
And then I didn't have access
to scripts or anything like that,
so I would go and watch a movie.
They I could remember, I had a good memory,
so I would remember the scene.
Then I'd go home, write the scene down,
and whatever I didn't remember
I would fill in the scene myself.
Well, little by little I would
start filling in more blanks
and more blanks
and kind of go off and
do my own thing.
That was my first attempt
at writing dialog, stuff like that.
And I had forgotten,
I was doing a scene from "Marty",
Paddy Chayefshy's "Marty", in class.
Later I was talking to the guy
I had done the scene with
and he goes,
I mentioned what I just mentioned,
and he goes "Quinton,
you're as good as Paddy Chayefsky."
And I say "what are
you talking about?"
"Well remember when we did 'Marty'
and there was the monolog
about the fountain?"
"Yeah.."
"That's not in 'Marty' that's you!
You gave me your hand written version,
I have the original at home,
and I'm going there's no
monolog about a fountain 'Marty'.
But it fit in perfectly with the scene.
And it's just as good as
the Paddy Chayefsky stuff."
And literally, it was him,
his name was Ron Coleman,
Ronny Coleman,
and when he said that,
it was like the first "ding",
a little tiny dinner bell,
like on the side of a table.
It was the first little
ring where I was like
"Maybe I should pay attention
to this. Maybe I should
explore this a little bit more."