To me, all writing is like music. And especially dialogue. I studied music in college; that is what I wanted to be, a composer. Acting got me sidetracked.
Meaning of the quote
The actor Dirk Benedict sees writing, especially dialogue, as similar to music. He studied music in college because he wanted to become a composer, but then acting became his main focus instead. Just like a musician creates and combines different notes and rhythms, a writer carefully chooses and arranges words to create a specific tone and style, similar to a musical composition.
About Dirk Benedict
Dirk Benedict is an American actor known for his roles in the original Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team TV series. He has also written books, including Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy and And Then We Went Fishing.
More quotes from Dirk Benedict
A stage play requires very different craft from a book, fiction or otherwise, and ditto from a screenplay.
American actor (b. 1945)
I have written two nonfiction books, I’m embarrassed to say.
American actor (b. 1945)
Life has never been easy. Nor is it meant to be. It is a matter of being joyous in the face of sorrow.
American actor (b. 1945)
My favorite thing is to be alone in a room with a blank paper in front of me and the time to fill it.
American actor (b. 1945)
If you want to have great success, you’d better give them what they want, but so be it.
American actor (b. 1945)
If we wait until our lives are free from sorrow or difficulty, then we wait forever. And miss the entire point.
American actor (b. 1945)
I write from the same place I parent, and since becoming a single parent, I have found it difficult, if not impossible, to write anything of length.
American actor (b. 1945)
I am very abnormal… But it wasn’t very long ago that I wasn’t so abnormal. I was very normal and headed for a lifetime of paying medical bills as proof of my normalcy.
American actor (b. 1945)
There is a divine moment in our lives when we all become one. It’s called procreation, and it is reborn, continually and forever.
American actor (b. 1945)
It helps to be able to be alone. ‘Cuz writing is done alone, unless you collaborate, but I don’t do that. Ask my ex-wife.
American actor (b. 1945)
Time is money, as they say, and it was never more apropos than on a television show, where a minute is worth about $200!
American actor (b. 1945)
I can still fit into my Battlestar Galactica costume!
American actor (b. 1945)
I’m a classic example of what can happen if you follow your inner voice. I was cursed with interests and some talent in many different areas. It confuses people.
American actor (b. 1945)
Movies are movies, television is television.
American actor (b. 1945)
When I was a young actor… the more different you were from the part you played, the more talent it reflected.
American actor (b. 1945)
I write from my imagination, not from what I’ve read in books or seen on TV or to make money. I wrote from an idea I was passionate about.
American actor (b. 1945)
It is all about marketing; that is where the real craft comes in. The best actors do not necessarily become the biggest stars. And vice versa.
American actor (b. 1945)
Films must all have the same structure. All of this to guarantee box office bonanza, which of course it never does, but that’s another discussion entirely.
American actor (b. 1945)
The best things in life are usually difficult.
American actor (b. 1945)
The space genre is timeless.
American actor (b. 1945)
From Fred Astaire I learned discipline and hard work.
American actor (b. 1945)
In many ways I wish I wasn’t an actor dragging around the baggage from being one so that I could just devote my energies to encouraging people to find their true selves.
American actor (b. 1945)
The only difference from one $100 million budget film to another is which of the 12 box stars are getting $20 million to be in it.
American actor (b. 1945)
Harrison Ford was pretty content as a carpenter who thought it would be nice to work on TV and ended up being the biggest film star in the history of cinema.
American actor (b. 1945)
I never get involved with the ladies I work with.
American actor (b. 1945)
You can’t leave civilization behind entirely.
American actor (b. 1945)
I’m the worst person to ask about how to get noticed. It took me 25 years.
American actor (b. 1945)
Children… are our legacy. Our responsibility. They are our destiny and we are theirs. The extent to which we fail as parents, we fail as God’s children.
American actor (b. 1945)
Be very clear as to what your dream is. Nowadays it is fairly certain that 90 percent of all actors really just want to be rich and famous as the solution to all that ails.
American actor (b. 1945)
I believe that the first 8 years are most important and the time in a child’s life when parents must be absolutely and completely present.
American actor (b. 1945)
Hollywood… a city I was to come back to time and again, in sickness and in health, in success and in failure, with anticipation and with dread.
American actor (b. 1945)
Hollywood today is all about being consistent. All thinking in mainstream film business takes place in one box.
American actor (b. 1945)
From dear, dear Gloria Swanson, I learned how to live long, happy and free of health problems. I owe her my life.
American actor (b. 1945)
I wanted to be Anthony Hopkins and ended up being neither a film star nor having a career on the stage.
American actor (b. 1945)
Life: my favorite occupation.
American actor (b. 1945)
It is a good motive, fame and money, as it is tangible and measurable. Being an artist is neither measurable nor tangible and certainly not a way to become rich.
American actor (b. 1945)
We are all vegetarians here, and except for a mountain lion that’s been hanging around and killed our dog, we don’t have a care in the world.
American actor (b. 1945)
Generally speaking, actors are allowed NO input. Actors are dumb.
American actor (b. 1945)
To me, all writing is like music. And especially dialogue. I studied music in college; that is what I wanted to be, a composer. Acting got me sidetracked.
American actor (b. 1945)
I am very willing to share whatever I know or feel I know about finding some serenity in this lifetime.
American actor (b. 1945)
America is terrified of the passage of time. Prozac Nation. Land of Face Lifts.
American actor (b. 1945)
Children who cling to parents or who don’t want to leave home are stunted in their emotional, psychological growth.
American actor (b. 1945)
Change is good. And in fact unavoidable.
American actor (b. 1945)
Anybody can write a film script ‘cuz it has been reduced to a formula.
American actor (b. 1945)