After delivering a lecture one day in 2003, the famously forthright screenwriting guru Robert McKee invited two enthusiastic students to join him in a restaurant, where he ordered a ham-and-cheese sandwich and a beer.
"His guests were in their thirties. One worked in health insurance, and said that in ten years as 'an aspiring screenwriter' he had not managed to finish a single script. He had taken a McKee course three times, and he had read McKee's 1997 book, 'Story,' many more times. 'I'm starting to wonder if I have the patience for the whole process,' he said. McKee looked at him. 'Well, you might also wonder if you have the talent,' he said."
[McKee was the basis for Brian Cox's character in Spike Jonze's 2002 film, Adaptation. Kaufman introduces himself as "the guy you yelled at this morning." McKee responds, "I need more."]
Sources
The New Yorker, 2003-10-20
