Herman J. Mankiewicz



Herman Jacob Mankiewicz (November 7, 1897 in New York City — March 5, 1953 in Hollywood, California) was a Hollywood screenwriter and raconteur.

Quotes

 * Will you accept three hundred dollars per week to work for Paramount? All Expenses paid. The Three Hundred is Peanuts, millions are to be grabbed out here and your only comepetition is idiots. Don't let this get around.
 * Telegram to Ben Hecht (1926), cited in Julien Gorbach The Notorious Ben Hecht: Iconoclastic Writer and Militant Zionist, West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2019, p. 92


 * There, but for the grace of God, goes God.
 * On Orson Welles, quoted in The New York Times (11 October 1985)


 * Never care what anybody says.
 * Told to Oscar Levant, who admitted: "I took his advice with deleterious results."


 * I don't know how it is that you start working at something you don't like, and before you know it you're an old man.